Passing: Modern Library Torchbearers

But Irene's hold on this world begins to slip the day she encounters Clare Kendry, a childhood friend with whom she had lost touch. Clare--light-skinned, beautiful, and charming--tells Irene how, after her father's death, she left behind the black neighborhood of her adolescence and began passing for white, hiding her true identity from everyone, including her racist husband. As Clare begins inserting herself into Irene's life, Irene is thrown into a panic, terrified of the consequences of Clare's dangerous behavior. And when Clare witnesses the vibrancy and energy of the community she left behind, her burning desire to come back threatens to shatter her careful deception.

Praise for Passing

"The genius of this book is that its protagonists . . . are complex and fully realized. . . . The work of a highly talented and thoughtful writer."--Richard Bernstein, The New York Times

Features an introduction by Ntozake Shange and a critical foreword and notes by Mae Henderson