Their Eyes Were Watching God

Their Eyes Were Watching God is a 1937 novel by American writer Zora Neale Hurston, considered a classic of the Harlem Renaissance and Hurston's best-known work. Set in central and southern Florida in the early twentieth century, it follows protagonist Janie Crawford's ripening from a vibrant but voiceless teenage girl into a woman with her finger on the trigger of her own destiny. Hurston wrote the novel in Haiti in the span of seven weeks. Though initially poorly received by the African-American community, the novel has since been regarded as influential to both African-American literature and women's literature, and Time magazine included it in its 2005 list of the 100 best English-language novels published since 1923.