Strange Fruit is a 1944 bestselling debut novel by American author Lillian Smith that deals with the then-forbidden and controversial theme of interracial romance.

[2] In her 1956 autobiography, singer Billie Holiday wrote that Smith named the book after her 1939 song "Strange Fruit", which was about lynching and racism against African Americans.

Smith maintained the book's title referred to the "damaged, twisted people (both black and white) who are the products or results of our racist culture.

[12] The book has been published in multiple languages, including French (2006, Phébus),[13] Swedish (1980, with foreword by Anders Österling),[14] and Hebrew (אור עם).

[16][17] Cambridge Police Chief Timothy J. O'Leary and the Boston Bookseller's Association both endorsed the book's banning,[18] also asking for Smith to censor her work, removing "three lines of 'sexual phraseology.

[25][26] Reception for the play was predominantly negative,[27] with The New York Times remarking that although Smith had the "best of intentions", her inexperience with playwriting kept Strange Fruit from being satisfactory.

[30] After the play completed its tour, Smith decided against allowing any further productions to be performed, calling it a "bitter and terrible fiasco".

[33] The film is very loosely adapted from Smith's book and the Holiday song, with the focus of the story changing from an interracial romance to center on Henry, who has been made into an African-American painter.

[37] Grace Elizabeth Hale (2009) argued that the book targeted positive images of the "gallant South", comparing regional politics to "contemporary global and national movements".

Cheryl Johnson, in 2001, remarked that in one scene Smith depicts an attack on a six-year-old Nonnie by several white boys, who only stop once Tracy intervenes.

They're initially confused by his actions, but eventually assume that Tracy stopped them because she "belongs" to him, as they did not see the molestation of an African-American girl as being wrong or anything to be punished for.

[40] Johnson remarks that Smith refrained from portraying Nonnie in any of the then typical "racist stereotypes of black women as either mammies or Jezebels", making her "closer to images of the 'ideal' white woman: beautiful, kind, compassionate, and loving.

[5] The Cambridge, Massachusetts restaurant "The Friendly Toast" included a drink called Strange Fruit on a menu of cocktails named after banned books.