Passing: The revolutionary novel which inspired Rebecca Hall's powerful film adaptation

"Brilliant. Passing is an anguished story of identity and belonging." - The New York Times

Nella Larsen's intense, taut and psychologically nuanced exploration of shifting racial and sexual boundaries.

First published in 1929, Larsen's portrayal of lives and identities dangerously colliding established her as a leading writer of America's Harlem Renaissance. Passing is a brilliant examination of the various ways in which we all seek to "pass". An underappreciated work in the Harlem Renaissance literature pantheon, revolutionary for its depiction of homoerotic tension, Passing is as timely as ever.

Clare Kendry leads a dangerous life. Fair, elegant, and ambitious, she is married to a white man unaware of her African American heritage, and has severed all ties to her past. Clare's childhood friend, Irene Redfield, just as light-skinned, has chosen to remain within the African American community, but refuses to acknowledge the racism that continues to constrict her family's happiness. A chance encounter forces both women to confront the lies they have told others and the secret fears they have buried within themselves.

"Nella Larsen's Passing is one the finest novels of the year." - W.E.B. Du Bois

Praise for Passing

"Nella Larsen's brilliant 1929 novel, Passing is an anguished story of identity and belonging." - The New York Times

"Passing is one the finest novels of the year. Studied and singularly successful art.'" - W.E.B. Du Bois

"Stylish and subtle study of racial identity" - The Guardian

"Disturbingly brilliant ... the beauty of the writing, the close character study, and the intense psychological suspense." - NPR

"Passing is revolutionary for its depiction of homoerotic tension between two upper-middle-class Black women. Larsen's novel is an underappreciated work in the Harlem Renaissance literature pantheon." - Salon

"Passing is a drama of vision and of inner vision, of appearances and images and self-images... the drama of desperate desires and unspoken emotions in high and fervent relief ... of grand philosophical tragedy." - The New Yorker

"The work of a highly talented and thoughtful writer."-Richard Bernstein, The New York Times

"[Larsen's novels] open up a whole world of experience and struggle that seemed to me, when I first read them years ago, absolutely absorbing, fascinating, and indispensable."-Alice Walker

About the author

Nella Larsen (1891-1964) is recognized as one of the most influential, and certainly one of the most enigmatic, writers of the Harlem Renaissance. Larsen was remarkable in approaching the subject of race as a modernist - and with the instant success of her two novels, Quicksand (1928) and Passing (1929) - she became a bright light in New York's literary firmament. In 1930 Larsen became the first black woman to be awarded a Guggenheim fellowship. Yet, she never published again.