Kin by Tayari Jones

Kin arrives with the full weight of a major literary event — and it earns every bit of the anticipation. From the bestselling, award-winning author of An American Marriage, this is a novel that sparkles with wit, intelligence, and deep, abiding feeling.

At its heart are two women: Vernice and Annie, motherless daughters raised side by side in Honeysuckle, Louisiana, bound by childhood and loss. Their paths diverge sharply — Vernice toward the rarefied world of Spelman College and a sisterhood of ambitious, powerfully connected Black women; Annie toward a more perilous road, chasing the ghost of a mother who left her behind. When their worlds converge again in the face of devastating tragedy, what unfolds is nothing short of extraordinary.

This is a novel about mothers and daughters, friendship, sisterhood, and what it means to be a woman in the American South — rendered with the kind of emotional precision that stays with you long after the last page.

Ann Patchett, author of Tom Lake, calls it “the kind of all-encompassing reading experience I’m always hoping to find: smart and funny and deftly profound. This is Tayari Jones’s very best work.”

High praise — and completely deserved. The kind of book you’ll want to press into a friend’s hands the moment you finish it. Perfect for fans of literary fiction, stories centered on Black women’s lives, and anyone who believes that the bonds we form in childhood can shape us forever.

We have a feeling this one is going to find a permanent home on a lot of shelves — including ours.

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