Toni Morrison

 

Beloved

This gorgeously written, deeply painful, and profoundly important novel tells the story of Sethe, who escaped from slavery and established herself in Cincinnati, Ohio. Although much of the story takes place in 1871, after slavery has been abolished, Sethe’s past comes back to haunt her.

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The Bluest Eye

This novel tells a painful story about how racism and the legacy of slavery shape the psyches and lives of a young Black girl and her family.

 

Song of Solomon

Flight is a repeated motif in Song of Solomon, but whether flight connotes freedom or destruction, or both, is unclear. In either case, the novel is about Black history and identity and features a young Black man, Macon Dead III, or “Milkman,” who feels out of place in the Michigan town where he’s born. His aunt Pilate becomes a conduit to his ancestral history.