This was my first Baldwin novel and I really enjoyed it. While it was first published in 1974, it literally could have been written today in 2020. If Beale Street Could Talk highlights the relationship between Tish and Fonny, both young adults in New York. Fonny is falsely accused of a heinous crime and is held in prison awaiting his trial. Because he is a young black man, his trial keeps being postponed and the law enforcement simply does not care that he is in fact innocent. Tish finds out that she is pregnant with Fonny's child and turns to her family to help her get Fonny freed before she gives birth. Baldwin does an excellent job with creating the characters of this short novel and I feel like it would be an injustice to rate this title anything less than five stars. I look forward to reading more of his work in the future.