Best Selling Books by Tayari Jones

"Newlyweds Celestial and Roy, the living embodiment of the New South, are settling into the routine of their life together when Roy is sent to prison for a crime he didn''t commit. An insightful look into the lives of people who are bound and separated by forces beyond their control"--

A breathtaking tale of family secrets, from the international bestselling author of An American Marriage AN OBSERVER BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR A SAINSBURY''S MAGAZINE CHRISTMAS GIFT LISTING A GUARDIAN ''BEST BOOK OF 2020 TO SUPPORT INDEPENDENT PUBLISHERS'' A BOOKSELLER SMALL PUBLISHERS 2020 TOP 20 A Most Anticipated Book for 2020 according to The Sunday Times, the FT and the Guardian ''My father, James Witherspoon, is a bigamist.'' SECRETS Dana and Chaurisse are sisters, bound together by the life-changing secret of their father''s double life. LIES Only one of them knows the truth. When they do finally meet and form a friendship, the fragile balance of ignorance and silence that has kept James'' secrets safe for so long threatens to explode. HOPE This soulful story of friendship and sisterhood paints an unforgettable picture of the messy knots that bind families together, from the prize-winning author of An American Marriage.

FROM THE AUTHOR OF AN AMERICAN MARRIAGE, AN OPRAH''S BOOK CLUB 2018 SELECTION It''s the end of summer in Atlanta, and fifth-grade classmates Tasha Baxter, Rodney Green, and Octavia Harrison will discover that back-to-school means facing everyday challenges in a new world of safety lessons, terrified parents, and constant fear. Because it was the summer during which Atlanta''s African-American children were vanishing. The moving story of their struggle to grow up and survive shimmers with the piercing, ineffable quality of childhood, as it captures all the hurts and little wins, the all-too-sudden changes, and the merciless, outside forces that can sweep the young into adulthood and forever shape their lives. PRAISE FOR TAYARI JONES "Tayari Jones is blessed with vision to see through to the surprising and devastating truths at the heart of ordinary lives, strength to wrest those truths free, and a gift of language to lay it all out, compelling and clear."-Michael Chabon "Tayari Jones has emerged as one of the most important voices of her generation."-Essence "One of America''s finest writers."-Nylon.com "Tayari Jones is a wonderful storyteller." -Ploughshares

From the author of the Oprah Book Club Selection An American Marriage, here is an emotionally powerful novel that "succeeds mightily...truly a wonderful story" (Boston Globe). Aria is no stranger to tragedy -- as a young girl, she and her older sister and mother survived a car crash that took the lives of their father and beloved baby sister. And although relations with her remaining family are strained, she''s done her best to establish a solid, normal life for herself, living in Atlanta and teaching literacy to girls who have fallen on hard times. But now she has a secret that she''s not yet ready to share with Dwayne, her devoted boyfriend, or Rochelle, her roommate and best friend: Aria is pregnant. Or so she thinks. The truth is about to make her question her every assumption and reevaluate the life she has worked so hard to build for herself...as it sends her reeling in a direction she had no idea she was destined to go. Praise for Tayari Jones "Tayari Jones is blessed with vision to see through to the surprising and devastating truths at the heart of ordinary lives, strength to wrest those truths free, and a gift of language to lay it all out, compelling and clear." -- Michael Chabon "Tayari Jones has emerged as one of the most important voices of her generation." -- Essence "One of America''s finest writers." -- Nylon.com "Tayari Jones is a wonderful storyteller." -- Ploughshares

The prisoners were slaughtered one by one, with efficiency as true as a ticking clock. Two dozen dead now, and the executioner was just hitting his stride. The scene of the massacre was one of abject horror: the stench of fresh blood, the cloying smell of bodies floating in the brown lake, the viscous brain matter splattered and thickening on the sun-blanched pier. Above the slaughter the rocky hillside sparkled in the midday heat, the reflection of broken glass and twisted metal jutting out of the wreckage of a battle fought months ago. Many had died, and the few vanquished who survived had run for their lives and left the ruined land to the victors. The black flags of ISIS hung in the town square now, and they waved from the rooftops of the wrecked buildings and whipped in the back of most every pickup truck that rolled through the broken streets: certainly every vehicle that was filled to capacity with young bearded men wearing cheap tactical gear and brandishing weapons, eyes wild with the fervency of their sickening death cult. Here by the lake, between the broken hillside and the water, ran a narrow shoreline of salt flat and brown brush. Forty-three condemned men in orange jumpsuits knelt, the remainder of the sixty-seven who had been trucked here just twenty minutes earlier.