Kin: Oprah's Book Club
by Tayari Jones
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A magnificent new novel from the bestselling, award-winning author of An American Marriage--Tayari Jones has written an unforgettable novel that sparkles with wit and intelligence and deep feeling about two lifelong friends whose worlds converge after many years apart in the face of a devastating tragedy.
"Kin is 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." --Ann Patchett, author of Tom Lake
Vernice and Annie, two motherless daughters raised in Honeysuckle, Louisiana, have been best friends and neighbors since earliest childhood but are fated to live starkly different lives. Raised by a fierce aunt determined to give her a stable home in the wake of her mother's death, Vernice leaves Honeysuckle at eighteen for Spelman College, where she joins a sisterhood of powerfully connected Black women and discovers a world of affluence, manners, aspiration, and inequality. Annie, abandoned by her mother as a child and fixated on the idea of finding her and filling the bottomless hole left by her absence, sets off on a journey that will take her into a world of peril and adversity, as well as love and adventure, culminating in a battle for her life.
A novel about mothers and daughters, friendship and sisterhood, and the complexities of being a woman in the American South, Kin is an exuberant, emotionally rich, unforgettable work from one of the brightest and most irresistible voices in contemporary fiction.
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Book Details
- ISBN
- 9780525659181
- Binding
- Hardcover
- Authors
- Tayari Jones
- Publisher
- Knopf Publishing Group
- Published Date
- February 24, 2026
- Language
- English
- Pages
- 368
- Physical Info
- 1.41 in H x 9.37 in L x 6.57 in W (1.29 lb)

Wow. What a great and heartbreaking read. Can’t wait to recommend it to my besties. Hope they love it as much as I did.
The author draws you into the story line as if you were there experiencing the relationships initiated between two cradle friends and those they meet along the path of their lives.One of my favorite authors. Love her writing style and ability to bring her characters into reality.
Jones is a masterful storyteller. The characters grabbed my attention and kept it through each subplot. All of them were real, imperfect, and complex, giving readers layers of opportunities to connect and relate with them. Jones wrote this book! My favorite from this author.
This book offered a very slow start but slowly picked up steam and became a compelling read. I am glad that I persevered, with nudging from my friends. The connection between Annie and Niecy was deep and the story was full of knowable characters. My rating is actually a 4.5 stars. The issues of wealth, class and race were deftly exposed.
Jones is a favorite author of mine, so I looked forward to reading Kin. My daughter loaned me her autographed copy, but made me promise to return it, calling it her favorite book of all time. As I read the book, I kept thinking, yes, this is a 5 star book, and it certainly was until I reached the end. Like other literary critics, I found the ending abrupt and confusing, leaving me with questions that demanded answers. Kin is about two motherless girls living in the same southern town who both have issues with abandonment and love. They grow up together, tighter than sisters. They take different paths when they are teenagers; Vernice graduating from high school and going to college. Annie runs away before graduating and teams up with some other young people she met in the bar where they all worked. These people promise to drive her to Memphis so she can locate her mother. Of course, the car breaks down and with no money, they end up living on the property of a madam who oversees several prostitutes. Lulabelle, the madam, becomes a mother figure to Annie. Vernice has a sexual relationship with her female roommate, and they fall in love. However, Vernice wants a husband and respectability, so their relationship ends when she becomes engaged. Vernice and Annie stay in touch over the years, each other’s closest kin until the tragic end. It’s that ending that compels me to only give Kin 4 stars (sorry daughter).
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