Recitatif

A beautiful, arresting story by the legendary Toni Morrison-the only short story Morrison ever wrote-about race and the relationships that shape us, with an introduction by Zadie Smith.

In this 1983 short story, as timely now as it was then, 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 as girls, like "salt and pepper," they lose touch as they grow older, only later to find each other at a diner, a grocery store, and again at a protest. Seemingly at opposite ends of every problem, the two women are, like it or not, still held by the deep bond their shared experience forged between them.

Described by Zadie Smith as a "work of genius," Recitatif keeps Twyla's and Roberta's races ambiguous throughout the story. We know that one is white and one is Black, but which is which? 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."

Carrying within its short span the complexity and richness of a novel, moving effortlessly through time, Recitatif is a masterful look into what keeps us together and what keeps us apart, and how perceptions are made tangible by reality. Testament to Morrison's incomparable humanity and wisdom, this story is a gift to readers in these changing times.