Originally published in the 1960s, this novel received little attention and then just quietly slipped away, but now it has been reprinted many years later and it is finally getting the recognition it deserves. Set in Ohio in the years following the great depression, the book centres on the tragic life of Percola, a badly neglected twelve year old who has been raped and made pregnant by her own father. Her mother had never shown her any affection and much preferred the company of the white people she worked for. Neighbours saw Pecola as a toddler wandering around the streets crying for attention, but somehow she had become a dark warning of everything they dreaded, so she was always shunned, and other children were bought indoors rather than be allowed to play with her. This is not an easy read and shows the frightening inevitability of lasting damage to a person who has been pushed aside by everyone since birth. Pecola lives in a predominantly black community bu...