The overlooked American writer who blows apart modern thinking on race TelegraphBorn to a Danish mother and a West Indian father Helga Crane has long had to fend for herself as a mixed race woman in the Deep South of 1920 s America She moves to Harlem and then to Copenhagen in her search for a sense of belonging and acceptance but wherever she goes she cannot escape the perceptions and prejudices of others One of the finest works of the Harlem Renaissance Nella Larsen s semi autobiographical first novel is a powerful portrayal of one woman s fractured inner life