Brown Girl, Brownstones

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 Classic

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 Classics is the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world, representing a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

Product details

• Authors: Nicole Dennis-Benn, Paule Marshall
• Assisted by: Dennis-Benn Nicole (Foreword)
• Publisher: Penguin Books USA
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Release: 02.06.2026
• EAN: 9780143139218
• ISBN: 978-0-14-313921-8
• No. of pages: 288
• Dimensions: 129 mm x 197 mm x 12 mm
• 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