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Recitatif: A Story
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Recitatif: A Story Hardback - 2022

by Toni Morrison; Introduction by Zadie Smith

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From the publisher

NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER - A beautiful, arresting story about race and the relationships that shape us through life by the legendary Nobel Prize winner. With an introduction by Zadie Smith

"A puzzle of a story, then--a game.... When [Morrison] called Recitatif an 'experiment' she meant it. The subject of the experiment is the reader." --Zadie Smith, award-winning, best-selling author of White Teeth

In this 1983 short story--the only short story Morrison ever wrote--we meet Twyla and Roberta, who have known each other since they were eight years old and spent four months together as roommates in St. Bonaventure shelter. Inseparable then, they lose touch as they grow older, only later to find each other again at a diner, a grocery store, and again at a protest. Seemingly at opposite ends of every problem, and at each other's throats each time they meet, the two women still cannot deny the deep bond their shared experience has forged between them.

Another work of genius by this masterly writer, Recitatif keeps Twyla's and Roberta's races ambiguous throughout the story. Morrison herself described Recitatif, a story which will keep readers thinking and discussing for years to come, as "an experiment in the removal of all racial codes from a narrative about two characters of different races for whom racial identity is crucial." We know that one is white and one is Black, but which is which? And who is right about the race of the woman the girls tormented at the orphanage?

A remarkable look into what keeps us together and what keeps us apart, and how perceptions are made tangible by reality, Recitatif is a gift to readers in these changing times.

Details

  • Title Recitatif: A Story
  • Author Toni Morrison; Introduction by Zadie Smith
  • Binding Hardback
  • Pages 96
  • Volumes 1
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher Knopf Publishing Group
  • Publication date 2022-02-01
  • Features Bibliography
  • ISBN 9780593315033 / 0593315030
  • Weight 0.4 lbs (0.18 kg)
  • Dimensions 7 x 5.1 x 0.6 in (17.78 x 12.95 x 1.52 cm)
  • Themes
    • Ethnic Orientation: African American
    • Topical: Coming of Age
  • Category Fiction - General
  • Library of Congress subjects Short stories, African American women
  • Library of Congress Catalogue Number 2021944118
  • Dewey Decimal Code 813.54

Media reviews

Citations

  • Booklist, 02/15/2022, Page 20
  • Kirkus Reviews, 02/15/2022, Page 0
  • Library Journal Prepub Alert, 09/01/2021, Page 3
  • Publishers Weekly, 12/20/2021, Page 1

About the author

TONI MORRISON is the author of eleven novels and three essay collections. She received the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Pulitzer Prize, and in 1993 the Nobel Prize in Literature. She died in 2019.

Zadie Smith is the author of the novels White Teeth, The Autograph Man, On Beauty, NW and Swing Time, as well as a novella, The Embassy of Cambodia, and two collections of essays, Changing My Mind and Feel Free. She is also the editor of The Book of Other People. Zadie was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2002, and was listed as one of Granta's 20 Best Young British Novelists in 2003 and again in 2013. White Teeth won multiple literary awards including the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, the Whitbread First Novel Award and the Guardian First Book Award. On Beauty was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and won the Orange Prize for Fiction, and NW was shortlisted for the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction. Zadie Smith is currently a tenured professor of fiction at New York University and a Member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

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Recitatif: A Story

Recitatif: A Story

by Morrison, Toni

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9780593315033 / 0593315030
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Recitatif: A Story
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Recitatif: A Story

by Morrison, Toni

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Recitatif: A Story
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Recitatif: A Story

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Recitatif: A Story
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Recitatif: A Story

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Recitatif: A Story
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Recitatif: A Story

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Recitatif: A Story
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Recitatif: A Story

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Recitatif : A Story
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Recitatif : A Story

by Morrison, Toni

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Recitatif : A Story
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Recitatif : A Story

by Morrison, Toni

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ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
9780593315033 / 0593315030
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Better World Books
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A$17.71
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Description:
Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. Used - Very Good. Former library copy. Pages intact with possible writing/highlighting. Binding strong with minor wear. Dust jackets/supplements may not be included. Includes library markings. Stock photo provided. Product includes identifying sticker. Better World Books: Buy Books. Do Good.
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Recitatif: A Story
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Recitatif: A Story

by Morrison, Toni; Smith, Zadie

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Recitatif: A Story
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Recitatif: A Story

by Morrison, Toni

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ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
9780593315033 / 0593315030
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