A PBS Great American Read Top 100 Pick A deeply soulful novel that comprehends love and cruelty and separates the big people from the small of heart without ever losing sympathy for those unfortunates who don t know how to live properly. --Zadie Smith One of the most important and enduring books of the twentieth century Their Eyes Were Watching God brings to life a Southern love story with the wit and pathos found only in the writing of Zora Neale Hurston. Out of print for almost thirty years--due largely to initial audiences rejection of its strong black female protagonist--Hurston s classic has since its 1978 reissue become perhaps the most widely read and highly acclaimed novel in the canon of African-American literature.