Twyla, the narrator, and Roberta meet at eight years old as roommates for four months at St. Bonaventure, a children's shelter — Twyla's mother "danced all night," Roberta's was ill. One girl is Black and one is white, but Morrison never says which, describing the story as an experiment in removing all racial codes from a narrative about two characters of different races for whom race is crucial. The women meet again across the decades — at a diner, a grocery store, and a protest over school busing — their fortunes reversed and their memories in conflict, above all about Maggie, the shelter's mute kitchen worker, whom they tormented, and about Maggie's race. Each apparent clue about Twyla and Roberta's identities reverses under scrutiny, turning the reader's own assumptions into the story's real subject.
Author: Toni Morrison · Original publisher: Knopf (New York), 2022 — standalone book edition; see flag for true first publication