“If one had to identify the single most influential shaping force in modern Black literary history, one would probably have to point to Wright and the publication of Native Son.” – Henry Louis Gates Jr.

Right from the start, Bigger Thomas had been headed for jail. It could have been for assault or petty larceny; by chance, it was for murder and rape. This classic American novel, Native Son, tells the story of this young black man caught in a downward spiral after he kills a young white woman in a brief moment of panic.

Set in Chicago in the 1930s, Richard Wright's powerful novel is an unsparing work of social commentary and a reflection on the poverty, racial injustice, and feelings of hopelessness experienced by people in inner cities across the country and of what it means to be black in America.

This abridged edition of Native Son reprints the original edition from 1940. It also includes an essay by Wright, How "Bigger" was Born, as well as an afterword by John Reilly.