A flood brings not only rising waters but the full force of a brutal, racist world

With the Mississippi flooding, a Black farmer struggles to get his pregnant wife to safety. In the chaos, a single desperate decision sets off a chain of events that cannot be undone. Down By the Riverside is Richard Wright’s unflinching novella of race, power and consequence. Starkly told and painfully resonant, it captures how quickly the world can turn – and who is forced to pay the price.

BRIEF ENCOUNTERS: classic novellas and captivating stories, to be read in a single sitting or savoured over days