Brown Girl, Brownstones

Selina Boyce grows up in a Barbadian immigrant household in Brooklyn during the Depression and World War II. Pulled between her father's longing for Barbados and her mother's determination to secure a brownstone and a future in New York, Selina must form her own identity while confronting poverty, racism, family conflict, and competing ideas of belonging. First published in 1959, the novel follows her passage toward independence within a closely observed Caribbean American community.