New York Light Skin Gone to Waste

In Toni Ann Johnson’s debut collection, a Black family, the Arringtons, moves to a small, predominantly white suburb of New York in 1962. The Arrington family—cosmopolitan, sophisticated, and secretly falling apart—is the center of exquisitely crafted, interconnected stories. With vivid character portraits and explosive, layered writing, Johnson creates an unflinching examination of racism and family dysfunction.