The Narrows

The Narrows is a 1953 novel by African-American writer Ann Petry. The name "The Narrows" is the African-American section of the fictional town of Monmouth, Connecticut, in which most of the novel's action takes place. Though less famous than Petry's earlier novel, The Street, The Narrows is her longest novel and, critic Hilary Holladay argues, her most complex: “The Narrows represents the full flowering of Petry’s preoccupation with human relationships.” The novel is written in the third person, narrated from the perspective of several different characters, often in flashback episodes. Setting