Oprah Picks 'Kin' for Book Club
Oprah's latest Book Club selection is *Kin* by Tayari Jones, a novel about two motherless girls bound by friendship and fate in Louisiana. The book explores themes of grief, loyalty, and chosen family. Oprah's endorsement typically signals breakout success and cultural relevance for titles.
This is the second Oprah's Book Club selection for author Tayari Jones, a rare honor. Her previous novel, "An American Marriage," was chosen in 2018 and went on to become a New York Times bestseller, selling over a million copies. That novel also won the 2019 Women's Prize for Fiction, the Aspen Words Prize, and an NAACP Image Award. The "Oprah effect" on book sales is well-documented, with selections often seeing a massive surge in sales. At the peak of the book club's popularity, an endorsement could lead to an estimated half a million extra copies sold. In 2018, the day after its selection, "An American Marriage" jumped to the #2 spot on Amazon's bestseller list. Jones wrote *Kin* after struggling with a different, contemporary novel she was contracted to write about gentrification in Atlanta. Feeling blocked and dealing with a diagnosis of Graves' disease, she turned to writing by hand in a notebook for comfort, which is when the characters and historical setting of *Kin* emerged. The novel is set in 1950s Louisiana and Atlanta, a departure from her previous contemporary fiction. A graduate of Spelman College, the University of Iowa, and Arizona State University, Jones is a professor of English and Creative Writing at Emory University. She has received numerous accolades throughout her career, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, and a Lifetime Achievement Award in Fine Arts from the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation. Winfrey's production company, Harpo Films, announced plans to adapt "An American Marriage" into a movie in 2018.
