The Third Generation

by Chester Himes

Genres: General Fiction; African American; Coming of Age; Literary Fiction

Synopsis

From the acclaimed author of the Harlem Detectives series, a powerful autobiographical novel about a black family tortured by colorism as it strives to live up to the myth of the Black middle class in white, post-war America

Lillian Taylor has three sons, a comfortable house, and a well-liked husband who teaches at a local college. But her contempt for her family’s dark complexion infects this bright world until it begins to come undone. As one troubling incident leads to another, her husband is pushed to an ever more precarious existence and her best-loved son, Charles, sinks into a life of vice in the perilous borderland between black and white society. With piercing insight and emotional depth, The Third Generation chronicles the unraveling of a black family plagued by the pernicious psychological effects of racism.

Release date: March 18, 2025

Publisher: Vintage

Print pages: 352