"A writer's life and work are not a gift to mankind; they are its necessity."

It seems fitting that as we just celebrated Black History Month, this quote from Toni Morrison comes to mind. Books get banned and taken away from us by politicians who have ulterior motives, but what they forget is that writers don’t stop writing. And into this world of continued uproar about what is considered a worthy topic comes a new novel from AN AMERICAN MARRIAGE author Tayari Jones. KIN is a book that builds its core around love, marriage, motherhood, and everything a woman can experience in a lifetime.

"...an engrossing, well-paced, expansive and emotional example of the best of literary fiction.... This breathtaking tour de force is a career high for Tayari Jones, an already proven writer who expands on her talents with a book for the ages."

Honeysuckle, Louisiana. It is the 1950s, and the igniting of the Civil Rights Movement is happening while the horror of Jim Crow laws are still in effect. Two young ladies who have lost their mothers become best friends. Vernice is ready to take on the world beyond her hometown, with a sense of bravery and purpose in her heart. Annie is bold and does whatever she can to fight off the restrictions of life in the Deep South. It’s a journey that takes her out of Honeysuckle and on a very different road from Vernice.

When the two reunite in Atlanta, where Vernice settles after attending Spelman College, it is clear that their experiences reflect both the expectations of race, gender and sexuality in an unsettling American landscape and the strengths and self-preserving power that they must depend on to move forward in such a whirling dervish of a world.

Their friendship is special --- a sisterhood forged in difficult times and, at least to Vernice, the only relationship that gives her a true home. Although both grew up with caregivers who tried to instill in them a sense of decorum and the tools by which to exist in a world that puts them in precarious positions simply because of how they look, Annie inserts herself in situations that Vernice would never even consider. Annie skips off in the middle of the night to hit the road, while a heartbroken Vernice continues as planned to her spot at Spelman.

The way we get to know every nuance, every dream, every fear that these women have is Jones’ strength as a writer. Vernice and Annie are joined by a soul love that is powerful, but in each of their distinctive voices, they wrestle with their allegiance to that love and how it affects the actions they take later in life. She incorporates important civil rights milestones and cultural topics into the story, which allows us to have a front-row seat to the myriad ways in which those times transform them and their worlds.

Jones is at the top of her game in KIN. She belongs to the same tier of talent as Jesmyn Ward or Honorée Fanonne Jeffers, as she reaches for the beauty, elegance and candid strength of Toni Morrison in excavating women’s lives in a trying, patronizing and racist landscape. Her writing packs an emotional punch, weaving a narrative that includes same-sex love, body image issues and girlhood friendship rituals --- experiences that all women rejoice in and suffer from as they grow up. However, the oppression they encounter changes them in unsettling ways.

KIN is an engrossing, well-paced, expansive and emotional example of the best of literary fiction. It is an exceptionally affecting work that is grounded in truth --- truth about racism, womanhood and the ties that bind us. Vernice and Annie can now join the pantheon of great fictional heroines whose journeys will reflect for generations to come a story etched in the stones of history.

This breathtaking tour de force is a career high for Tayari Jones, an already proven writer who expands on her talents with a book for the ages.