Tayari Jones's 'Kin' Gets Oprah Pick
Tayari Jones's new novel *Kin* has been selected for Oprah's Book Club, headlining this week's literary fiction releases alongside new novels from Janet Dailey and the final work from Nobel laureate Mario Vargas Llosa. Lauren Groff's story collection *Brawler* continues receiving critical acclaim for its emotional range and sharp prose. The releases reflect the continued strength and variety of contemporary literary fiction.
- This is the second time a novel by Tayari Jones has been selected for Oprah's Book Club; her 2018 novel *An American Marriage* was the 78th pick. An Oprah selection can increase a book's sales by as much as several million copies. - Jones wrote *Kin* after a three-year delay on her publisher's deadline, while struggling with writer's block and the onset of Graves' disease, an autoimmune disorder. The novel, set in the 1950s, emerged unexpectedly from a "word doodling" exercise, a departure from her usual contemporary settings. - The final novel from Mario Vargas Llosa, *I Give You My Silence*, was written after the 2010 Nobel laureate was diagnosed with a serious illness in 2020. The book is described as a love letter to his native Peru and its unique Creole music, known as the *vals*. - Prolific romance author Janet Dailey, who died in 2013, has sold over 300 million copies of her books worldwide. In 1997, she admitted to and settled a lawsuit for plagiarizing the work of bestselling author Nora Roberts in two of her novels. - Lauren Groff's story collection *Brawler* is being hailed by critics as "a knockout" and "incandescent," with stories that deliver an emotional "gut-punch". The collection's nine stories explore themes of trauma, guilt, and the complex lives of women.
