Kin | Tayari Jones

I really liked American Marriage, and I liked it even more after hearing Jones speak at my local literary lecture series, but I think she's set a whole new bar with Kin. It's a terrific book and further establishes Jones as the voice of Black southern women.

The story alternates between the voices of Niecy and Annie, babies left at near birth by the murder of a mother (Niecy) and the abandonment by a mother (Annie). The two girls are raised in the small town of Honeysuckle, Louisiana in the days of Jim Crow by a grandmother (Niecy) and an aunt (Annie), both of whom were not really wanting to raise another child. They take care of them, but are definitely not mothers. The two girls are "cradle friends," as close or closer than sisters, but their lives take different paths as they search for what was missing from their lives--their shared feelings of abandonment.

Niecy is always the "poor child" in Honeysuckle, losing her mother under tragic circumstances. She's adorable and indulged and ends up attending college in Atlanta, marrying into black aristocracy there. In the deal she gets a mother in her mother-in-law and discovers the benefits and downsides of the attention. She also carries a secret into that marriage that is known to the reader but not her husband who has his own issues with his mother. Annie, on the other hand, is obsessed with finding her real mother, a ne'er-do-well drinker who leaves her baby within a month of her birth. Annie sets out on a journey to find her and, in the process (she hopes) find herself. Along the way she finds and loses love, and see the seamier side of Black life in the south.

The book centers on themes of love and loss, attachment and abandonment, fairness and inequality, truth and facade. I'm not an audiobook person, but I'll bet it's a great listen.