The newest Oprah’s Book Club 2.0 selection: this special eBook edition of The Twelve Tribes of Hattie by Ayana Mathis features exclusive content, including Oprah’s personal notes highlighted within the text, and a reading group guide. The arrival of a major new voice in contemporary fiction. A debut of extraordinary distinction: Ayana Mathis tells the story of the children of the Great … story of the children of the Great Migration through the trials of one unforgettable family.
In 1923, fifteen-year-old Hattie Shepherd flees Georgia and settles in Philadelphia, hoping for a chance at a better life. Instead, she marries a man who will bring her nothing but disappointment and watches helplessly as her firstborn twins succumb to an illness a few pennies could have prevented. Hattie gives birth to nine more children whom she raises with grit and mettle and not an ounce of the tenderness they crave. She vows to prepare them for the calamitous difficulty they are sure to face in their later lives, to meet a world that will not love them, a world that will not be kind. Captured here in twelve luminous narrative threads, their lives tell the story of a mother’s monumental courage and the journey of a nation.
Beautiful and devastating, Ayana Mathis’s The Twelve Tribes of Hattie is wondrous from first to last—glorious, harrowing, unexpectedly uplifting, and blazing with life. An emotionally transfixing page-turner, a searing portrait of striving in the face of insurmountable adversity, an indelible encounter with the resilience of the human spirit and the driving force of the American dream.
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This is a devastating book, beautifully written, but devastating. In the early years of the twentieth century Hattie Shepard and her sisters journey north to Philadelphia. They hope to escape the violence of the Jim Crow south. What they find is a world that falls far short of the hopes and dreams they had for their new life. The book follows each …
Interesting telling of a women and her descendants from a number of different perspectives
It takes a lot of strength to be a woman, a mother, a wife…this story is a testament to that fact…also that none of us are perfect.
The Twelve Tribes of Hattie takes place in Philadelphia. Fifteen year old Hattie, along with her mother and two sisters, flee from Georgia in hopes of a better life. I must say that this story was an unique read. Hattie was just a young teenager when she birthed her first set of children, twins Philadelphia and Jubilee. A young wife at age …
Anytime the topic of breakout debut novels comes up, I want to talk about Ayana Mathis. The Twelve Tribes of Hattie reads like the late-career masterpiece of an author whose work has been through the refining mill of years and experiences. The text is both taut and easy, the characters are real AF. The story is magnificently heartbreaking and …
I tried to read this but just could not get into it
I felt like the characters were well developed, but the ending lacked something. A good portrayal of the era though.
With such an abrupt ending, I am devastated! There was no anticlimactic cooling down period. HATED the end. However, the characters are well developed albeit short. Unfortunately, I see a motion picture coming.
i found the book sad but very interesting.
An amazing, albeit largely tragic, collection of stories.
All stories were depressing.
A fascinating book, told with some of the most interesting and provocative of similes. A southern girl destined to gestate twelve children, realizes too late the folly of her life and the beliefs that had been inculcated in to her. Like nearly all cumbrously large families there is emotional pathology and loneliness that can’t be assuaged. This …
An awesome illustration of Negro life in the city. Read it. You won’t be disappointed
I was very disappointed in this book. Especially the ending, if you could call it that…it really just stopped. No conclusions, no closure, just no more words. The writing was good, and it held my interest – but the abrupt stop was a huge let down.
One of my all time faves, I simply couldn’t put this book down. I can’t even begin to describe how this pulls at heart strings all the way to the very last page. For anyone who is into family situations or just loves an island book – this one is for you. Seamstress, lovers, children, heat. It has it all.