Native Son cover art

Native Son

 Preview
Try Premium Plus free
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

Native Son

By: Richard Wright
Narrated by: Peter Francis James
Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £16.99

Buy Now for £16.99

About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

With a new afterword by Gary Younge.

Reckless, angry and adrift, Bigger Thomas has grown up trapped in a life of poverty in the slums of Chicago. But a job with the affluent Dalton family provides the setting for a catastrophic collision between his world and theirs. Hunted by citizen and police alike, and baited by prejudiced officials, Bigger finds himself the cause célèbre in an ever-narrowing endgame.

First published in 1940, Native Son shocked readers with its candid depiction of violence and confrontation of racial stereotypes. It went on to make Richard Wright the first best-selling Black writer in America.

©1940 Richard Wright (P)1940 Penguin Audio African American Classics Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Fiction

Listeners also enjoyed...

 Their Eyes Were Watching God cover art
Invisible Man cover art
Beloved cover art
Willa Cather's Prairie Trilogy cover art
A Farewell to Arms cover art
Heart of Darkness: A Signature Performance by Kenneth Branagh cover art
The Souls of Black Folk cover art
The Sound and the Fury cover art
Uncle Tom's Cabin cover art
The Autobiography of Malcolm X cover art
As I Lay Dying cover art
Cry, the Beloved Country cover art
The Half Has Never Been Told cover art
The Color of Law cover art
The Willie Lynch Letter and the Making of a Slave cover art
Frederick Douglass cover art

Critic reviews

"[Native Son] possesses an artistry, penetration of thought, and sheer emotional power that places it into the front rank of American fiction." (Ralph Ellison)

"The most important and celebrated novel of Negro life to have appeared in America." (James Baldwin)
All stars
Most relevant
I can't say I liked it but is a good book and I can appreciate that. It is an important work of literature and shoukd be read The narration is superb but there are a few places where lines are repeated and they forgot to edit out end if disc notifications

Famous and I understand why

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This is a thought provoking story, and one that highlights the prejudice and racism that exists to this day, in the US, the UK and elsewhere. It was written in 1940 and through its examination of a double killing and the workings of the justice system, the book explores the alienation and disconnection experienced by a young black man, Bigger Thomas. In the early stages of the novel, Bigger is essentially ‘dead’, empty and drifting. He speaks few words and believes in nothing and no one. Killing therefore comes easy to him. The first killing is that of a young white woman, the daughter of Bigger’s rich and benign employer. The second is of a young black woman, Bessie, Bigger’s girlfriend, whom he does not love, because Bigger can love no one, not even himself.

The novel resembles that of Albert Camus’ “The Stranger”, though Camus’ novel was written two years later. Both explore the existential themes of freedom, responsibility and isolation. Through the trial of Bigger Thomas, “Native Son” sets out to demonstrate that, while Bigger may have committed the crimes he is accused of, it is the racist society within which he lives, that created the killer in him; the racist society that found him guilty (of murder and rape) even before he committed the crimes. His only advocates are to be found among members of the local Communist Party - Jan, a man of principle, on whom Bigger initially tries to pin the crime, and Mr. Max, an elderly, white Jewish lawyer. It is the latter who defends Bigger in court and by the end of the novel, Bigger has not only confessed his crimes, but has also come to life, confessing his soul and forming a bond of trust and connection with Mr. Max, giving Bigger the one and only meaningful relationship he has ever had.

Bigotry and Alienation

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I enjoyed this novel immensely even though at times it made me sad and angry. Well written with believable characters. Articulates the race problem in a way that relates to the present day.

Brilliant

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Amazingly insightful look into the mind of someone who really understands prejudice of all and any sort. Mirrors my own feelings so I guess that's why I really connected with the story.
I would make it compulsory reading at all schools for the next generation or two and hopefully we can wipe out the parental perceptions which are instilled into the minds of their children to perpetuate generations old latent prejudices that I see all around me still today.

One of ths best books I have ever read.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Don’t listen to anything else until you’ve listened to this. Everyone should know this book.

Incredible book brilliantly read

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews