Quicksand
First novel, with autobiographical elements, by Harlem Renaissance writer Nella Larsen. Originally published in 1928.
Go Tell It on the Mountain
James Baldwin's first, semi-autobiographical novel. Originally published in 1953.
The System of Dante's Hell
1965 novel about Black protest by Amiri Baraka (LeRoi Jones). E-book.
Dézafi
Zombie novel by Haitian writer Frankétienne. Originally published in Haitian Creole in 1975.
*Kindred
Historical and fantasy novel by Octavia Butler in which a twentieth-century Black woman is transported to antebellum Maryland. Originally published in 1979.
The Salt Eaters
Experimental novel about a Southern Black community by Toni Cade Bambara. Published in 1980.
*The Color Purple
Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Alice Walker telling the story of two sisters through their correspondence. Originally published in 1982.
Parable of the Sower
Post-apocalyptic science fiction novel from 1983. By Octavia Butler.
*Beloved
By popular demand: Toni Morrison's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel about slavery and enslavement. First published in 1987.
*The Watsons Go to Birmingham--1963
A family takes a road trip to Birmingham, Alabama, at the height of the civil rights movement. Novel by Christopher Paul Curtis first published in 1995.
Tropic of Orange
Satirical social novel by Japanese American author Karen Tei Yamashita. Originally published in 1997.
*The Known World
Historical novel from 2003 by Edward P. Jones about a slave in antebellum Virginia who becomes proprietor of his own plantation.
*The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
Sherman Alexie's story of a budding cartoonist growing up on the Spokane Indian Reservation. Novel originally published in 2007.
*Behold the Dreamers
Prize-winning novel from 2016 about a young Cameroonian couple making a new life in New York. Imbolo Mbue's Behold the Dreamers examines the impact of the 2008 financial crisis on immigrant workers.
*Homegoing
Yaa Gyasi's novel tracing a family's history of slavery from both the American and Ghanaian perspectives. First published in 2016.
*The Underground Railroad
Prize-winning historical novel by Colson Whitehead published in 2016. A teenage girl attempts to flee from slavery in the pre-Civil War South.
*The Hate U Give
Award-winning book for young adults by Angie Thomas about a Black girl whose childhood best friend is killed by a police officer. Published in 2017.
*Sing, Unburied, Sing
Award-winning novel by Jesmyn Ward telling the story of a family on a journey through rural Mississippi. Published in 2017.
There There
Award-winning first novel about the history of Native Americans by Tommy Orange. Published in 2018.
*I'm Not Dying with You Tonight
Two teen girls confront their own assumptions about racial inequality as they rely on each other to get through a violent race riot. Novel by Kimberly Jones and Gilly Segal published in 2019. E-book.
Interior Chinatown
Satirical novel by Charles Yu about Asian American stereotypes. Winner of the 2020 National Book Award for Fiction.
Like a Bird
Debut novel about sexual assault by Fariha Róisín. Published in 2020. E-book.
Memorial
Acclaimed debut novel and love story by Bryan Washington. Published in 2020. E-book.
*The Night Watchman
Award-winning 2020 novel by Louise Erdrich based on the life of the author's grandfather, a night watchman at a factory near the Turtle Mountain Reservation in North Dakota.
*The Vanishing Half
Bestselling novel by Brit Bennett about twin sisters, inseparable as children, who ultimately choose to live in two very different worlds, one Black and one White. Published in 2020.
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