"[Naylor's] ardent inventiveness as a storyteller and the complex individuality she gives to each of her seven main characters make the novel so much more than a contrived literary assembly line. . . . Deftly, Naylor gathers all these individual stories into one climactic narrative that works through the reader via a word-by-word sense of horror and outrage. . . . The Women of Brewster Place, born of the details of a particular time and community, also turns out to be one of those, yes, universal stories depicting how we, the fallen, seek grace. Maureen Corrigan, NPR's Fresh Air
The most refreshing voice in the black idiom since readers first discovered Toni Morrison. Claude Brown, author ofManchild in the Promised Land
Naylor creates a completely believable, and very frightening, world of degradation, violence and human very human courage and sturdiness. Chicago Sun-Times
Vibrating with undisguised emotion, The Women of Brewster Place springs from the same roots that produces the blues. Like them, [Naylor s] book sings of sorrow proudly borne by black women in America. The Washington Post
Gloria Naylor (1950 2016) grew up in New York City. She received her BA in English from Brooklyn College and her MA in Afro-American Studies from Yale University. Her first novel, The Women of Brewster Place, won the National Book Award for first fiction in 1983. She is also the author of Linden Hills, Mama Day, Bailey's Cafe, and The Men of Brewster Place.
Tayari Jones (foreword) is the New York Times bestselling author of An American Marriage, which was an Oprah's Book Club Selection and a favorite of Barack Obama, as well as Silver Sparrow, The Untelling, and Leaving Atlanta.She is a professor-at-large at Cornell University and a professor of creative writing at Emory University.