In Kin, Tayari Jones skillfully addresses mother-daughter relationships, friendships, loss, survival and race, not necessarily in that order.
Niecy and Annie are cradle friends. After her father killed her mother, Niecy is raised by her aunt. Around the same time, Annie’s mother took off leaving the infant in the care of her grandmother.
There is joy, heartache and humor as Jones describes the girls’ friendship through their shared childhood and adolescence in a small Louisiana dot-on-the-map. The pair personify the idea of opposites attract, which continues throughout their lives. Annie is daring and Niecy is more cautious. Their bond breaks temporarily just before high school graduation. Annie runs away with friends in search of her mother; an absence that’s as much a part of her as her skin color. A few months later, Niecy goes to Spelman College.
Through the years, they write to one another. Annie’s life is a roller coaster of emotions, full of ups and lots of downs while trying to find her mother. She finds a mother figure in the most unlikely of places: a brothel where she and her friends were stranded when their car broke down. Meanwhile, Niecy’s experiences revolved around college life and the civil rights movement. She, too, finds her own substitute mother as her education evolves beyond more than classrooms and books.
Much of the novel’s strength and beauty lies in the depth of the characters while acknowledging the importance of family, especially those not related to one’s birth.
Kin
Five bookmarks
Knopf, 2026
368 pages
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