Brown Girl, Brownstones

A collectible hardcover edition of the beloved coming-of-age novel about a Brooklyn girlhood that heralded a renaissance in Black women’s literature more than sixty years ago, with a new foreword by Nicole Dennis-Benn, the bestselling author of A Penguin Vitae Edition Selina Boyce comes of age in 1940s Brooklyn as the daughter of two Barbadian immigrants--a father she adores and who dreams of nothing but his return to his homeland, and a mother she admires and who is determined to purchase their New York City brownstone. When her father comes into an unexpected inheritance, her parents’ opposing desires set in motion the family’s collapse and Selina’s own self-realization amid the warring ideals and identities of her Black Caribbean community. With Penguin Vitae--loosely translated as "Penguin of one''s life"--is a deluxe hardcover series from Penguin Classics celebrating a dynamic and diverse landscape of classic fiction and nonfiction from seventy-five years of classics publishing. Penguin Vitae provides readers with beautifully designed classics that have shaped the course of their lives, and welcomes new readers to discover these literary gifts of personal inspiration, intellectual engagement, and creative originality.

About the author

Paule Marshall; Foreword by Nicole Dennis-Benn

Product details

• Authors: Nicole Dennis-Benn, Paule Marshall
• Assisted by: Dennis-Benn Nicole (Foreword)
• Publisher: Penguin Books USA
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Release: 02.06.2026
• EAN: 9780143139201
• ISBN: 978-0-14-313920-1
• No. of pages: 288
• Dimensions: 129 mm x 197 mm x 18 mm
• Series: Penguin Vitae
• Subjects: Fiction > Narrative literature; FICTION / Coming of Age, Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945), Fiction: special features, Narrative theme: Coming of age, Narrative theme: displacement, exile, migration, FICTION / African American & Black / Women, Relating to African American / Black American people, FICTION / Immigration, Modern and contemporary fiction: literary and general