An American Marriage by Tayari Jones
October 29 @ 10:00 am - 12:00 pm
featuring Alexandra Odom, African American Studies Librarian
2019 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work. Longlisted for the 2018 National Book Award.
Listen to Beth Gardiner & Alex Odom discuss the novel with WCHL’s Aaron Keck on “Oh, The Humanities” below:
Newlyweds Celestial and Roy are the embodiment of both the American Dream and the New South. He is a young executive, and she is an artist on the brink of an exciting career. But as they settle into the routine of their life together, they are ripped apart by circumstances neither could have imagined. Roy is arrested and sentenced to twelve years for a crime Celestial knows he didn’t commit. Though fiercely independent, Celestial finds herself bereft and unmoored, taking comfort in Andre, her childhood friend, and best man at their wedding. As Roy’s time in prison passes, she is unable to hold on to the love that has been her center. After five years, Roy’s conviction is suddenly overturned, and he returns to Atlanta ready to resume their life together.
This stirring love story is a profoundly insightful look into the hearts and minds of three people who are at once bound and separated by forces beyond their control. An American Marriage is a masterpiece of storytelling, an intimate look deep into the souls of people who must reckon with the past while moving forward—with hope and pain—into the future.
“Powerful . . . The story . . . is both sweeping and intimate—at once an unsparing exploration of what it means to be black in America and a remarkably lifelike portrait of a marriage.”
—The New Yorker
“Tayari Jones is a bard of the modern South, a writer whose skill at weaving stories is matched only by her compassion for her characters. While An American Marriage confronts thorny issues around race and the criminal justice system it is, at heart, a love story. It’s also a meditation on the creation of art, the meaning of family and the conflict between duty and desire. Jones has crafted a complex, layered story that’s both intimate and broad, a literary page-turner that’s impossible to put down.”
—The Los Angeles Times
“A moving portrayal of the effects of a wrongful conviction on a young African-American couple.”
—Barack Obama
DETAILS
Meeting Dates and Times: Tuesdays, October 22 and 29 |10:00 am-12:00 pm
Cost: $40, includes a copy of the book shipped to your home
This is a hybrid program held at Flyleaf Books. A very limited number of virtual seats are available on a first come, first served basis
Due to the nature of the reading groups, refunds are not available.
