Recitatif

Recitatif is the only short story written by the powerhouse novelist … Morrison’s sharp-eyed treatment of race, racism, and racial hierarchies remains relevant, digging deep into the marrow of society’s maladies. * Literary Hub *
[A] stunning work … An illuminating introduction … The author’s experiment pays off brilliantly, forcing the reader to consider racial stereotypes while also providing an indelible story. * Publishers Weekly *
The gravitas and unparalleled skill found in Morrison’s best-known work is on full display in this compact powerhouse. * Publishers Weekly *
A uniquely interesting and enlightening reading experience. * Kirkus Reviews *
This is the perfect text for a country still vigorously debating the relevance of race … The singular quality of this story makes it worthwhile, especially because the book contains a long, thoughtful introduction by Zadie Smith [which] provides a close reading and examines the way racial categories function in our allegedly post-racial culture. * Washington Post *
This smart slippery tale… [is] highly relevant to our times… [Recitatif] serves as a challenge to contemporary novels that prefer to take refuge in racial orthodoxy than unsettle it, as Morrison so brilliantly does here * Daily Mail *
A compelling exploration of race and relationships * i *
So thought-provoking you’ll want everyone you know to read it * Daily Mail, Summer Reads of 2022 *
Genius * Guardian *

Toni Morrison (Author)

Toni Morrison was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993. She was the author of many novels, including The Bluest Eye, Sula, Beloved, Paradise, and Love. She received the National Book Critics Circle Award and a Pulitzer Prize for her fiction and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, America’s highest civilian honour, in 2012. Toni Morrison died on 5 August 2019 at the age of eighty-eight.

Zadie Smith (Introducer)

Zadie Smith is the author of the novels White Teeth, The Autograph Man, On Beauty, NW, Swing Time, and The Fraud; as well as a novella, The Embassy of Cambodia; four collections of essays, Changing My Mind, Feel Free, Intimations, and Dead and Alive; a collection of short stories, Grand Union; and the play, The Wife of Willesden, adapted from Chaucer. She is also the editor of The Book of Other People. Zadie Smith was born in north-west London, where she still lives.

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