The Twelve Tribes of Hattie

Selected as Oprah's next bookclub read The Twelve Tribes of Hattie is destined to be an international bestseller.
 
Twelve Tribes is an unforgettably powerful novel about a mother's courage, sacrifice and love, set against the volatile history of twentieth century America.
 
Already the book has received amazing reviews:
 
"The opening pages of Ayana’s debut took my breath away. I can’t remember when I read anything that moved me quite this way, besides the work of Toni Morrison."   - Oprah Winfrey
 
"A treasure of a novel...Beautiful and necessary from the very first sentence." Paul Harding
 
"This first novel is a work of rare maturity...The characters are full of life...A vibrant and compassionate portrait of a family." Marilynne Robinson

Through the stories of Hattie and her children, the novel presents a snapshot of American history across eight decades, from the Great Migration of the 1920s to the end of the twentieth century

When Hattie clambered from a train, her skirt still hemmed with Georgia mud and the dream of Philadelphia sitting round as a marble in her mouth, she couldn’t guess that two years later, aged sixteen, she’d be fighting to keep her baby twins alive.

Saddled with a husband who will bring her nothing but disappointment, she raises nine children with grit and monumental courage, but no tenderness. She knows the world will not be kind to them and wants to prepare them as best she can. As her sons and daughters buck against their fates, she feels every one of their triumphs and heartbreaks, for they are all bound together.

A searing portrait of twentieth century America told through the story of an unforgettable family, a transfixing drama of bitterness and love and a ferocious vision of humanity at its rawest; THE TWELVE TRIBES OF HATTIE is a debut of extraordinary distinction.

Ayana Mathis lives in New York. This is her first novel.