The Twelve Tribes of Hattie: A Novel

· Sold by Vintage
4.2
18 reviews
Ebook
256
Pages
Eligible

About this ebook

NATIONAL BESTSELLER AN OPRAH'S BOOK CLUB 2.0 SELECTION "A remarkable page-turner of a novel." Chicago Tribune

In 1923, fifteen-year-old Hattie Shepherd, swept up by the tides of the Great Migration, flees Georgia and heads north. This "brutal, illuminating version of the twentieth century African-American experience belongs alongside those of Toni Morrison, Alice Walker and Zora Neale Hurston" (Newsday).

Full of hope, Hattie settles in Philadelphia to build a better life. Instead she marries a man who will bring her nothing but disappointment, and watches helplessly as her firstborn twins are lost to an illness that a few pennies could have prevented.

Hattie gives birth to nine more children, whom she raises with grit, mettle, and not an ounce of the tenderness they crave. She vows to prepare them to meet a world that will not be kind. Their lives, captured here in twelve luminous threads, tell the story of a mother’s monumental courage—and a nation's tumultuous journey.

Don't miss Ayana Matthis's new novel, The Unsettled coming soon!

Ratings and reviews

4.2
18 reviews
kim
February 11, 2013
I hate that their were so many missing variables with the characters just not enough details inside their lives. I got the ending but still confusing Hattie is in her seventies before she realizes she has a disconnect from her family especially her children. It was an interesting book but I was left so empty. I felt the author struggling with her writing and creativity. Its like the authors creativity flow begins but then shuts down. As soon as I get into a character their story abruptly ends and im lost...
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Anita Edwards
March 5, 2013
The story never gives you the true side of Hattie only what the children precede to be their mother. The hurt and pain whkch she was trying to prepare them for was never understood. The never understoood how she truly loved them.
1 person found this review helpful
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Brittany Johnson
February 7, 2013
I wish each child's story was as descriptive as the first few, and shared how their lives ended. But overall a great read that paints the environment and feelings superbly.
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About the author

AYANA MATHIS is a graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop and is a recipient of the Michener-Copernicus Fellowship. The Twelve Tribes of Hattie is her first novel. Originally from Philadelphia, she lives in Brooklyn.

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