Kin, by Tayari Jones

 

I loved this novel about two motherless girls who grow up together in a small Louisiana town. Niecy was raised by her aunt, and Annie by her grandmother. However, their lives diverge when they get close to their high school graduation and Annie runs away with her boyfriend to move to Memphis and find her mother who abandoned her as an infant. After she graduates, Niecy moves to Atlanta where she attends Spelman College and falls in love first with her roommate and later a lawyer from a prominent Atlanta family. The writing is so good in this book that I just didn't want it to end. The chapters alternate between the two women's perspectives and chronicles not just the adventures and challenges they face over the years, but also how their friendship never wanes but does evolve. The focus of the plot is on the respective character and life choices of Niecy and Annie, but the backdrop includes both the struggle for civil rights and feminism. Those historical developments do not overpower the story, which is touching and empathetic. Ms. Jones' earlier book, An American Marriage was also wonderful, and I look forward to reading more of her works.