Kin by Tayari Jones
I couldn’t put this book down! Set against the backdrop of Atlanta and the Jim Crow South, Jones’s beautiful prose transported me into the world of Annie and Niecey, two motherless, “cradle friends,” searching for their place in the world. The novel confronts race, class, and womanhood with honesty and nuance, while never losing sight of the tenderness and complexity of its characters. Equal parts devastating, hopeful, and unexpectedly funny, this coming-of-age story explores the lengths we go to discover who we are, and the sacrifices we make to become who we think we should be.
Kin by Tayari Jones, (List Price: $32, Knopf, 9780525659181, February 2026)
Reviewed by Tyler, Wild Aster Books in Chamblee, Georgia
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“I was visiting a bookstore when I dreamed up the opening lines to The Great Wherever. I was standing in my favorite sections―literary fiction―browsing backlist titles and delighting at how some of my longtime favorites blended the modern and hyper-realistic with unexpected elements of the supernatural. I’d been noodling over a novel for years by then, and suddenly―as if a key had turned in a lock―one began writing itself on the journal in my mind. First came the opening words, and then a sudden revelation: A ghost should tell this story.” 
“When I sat down to write this novel, it ended up going in a completely different direction than what I had intended. I’d originally wanted to write an unrequited love story. As I was writing the first few scenes, I was like, “Oh, these people actually both love each other, so that’s not working. Also, I really feel the need to explore how this character has come to love in this way, and to deny herself love in this way.
