Nella Larsenâs fascinating exploration of race and identityâthe inspiration for the Netflix film directed by Rebecca Hall, starring Tessa Thompson and Ruth Negga.
Irene Redfield is a Black woman living an affluent, comfortable life with her husband and children in the thriving neighborhood of Harlem in the 1920s. When she reconnects with her childhood friend Clare Kendry, who is similarly lightskinned, Irene discovers that Clare has been passing
for a white woman after severing ties to her pastâeven hiding the truth from her racist husband.
Clare finds herself drawn to Ireneâs sense of ease and security with her Black identity and longs for the community (and, increasingly, the woman) she lost.
Irene is both riveted and repulsed by Clare and her dangerous secret, as Clare begins to insert herselfâand her deceptionâinto every part of Ireneâs stable existence. First published in 1929, Larsenâs brilliant examination of the various ways in which we all seek to âpass,â is as timely as ever.