Tayari Jones

Silver Sparrow Tayari Jones Unabridged edition

With the opening line of Silver Sparrow, My father, James Witherspoon, is a bigamist, author Tayari Jones unveils a breathtaking story about a mans deception, a familys complicity, and two teenage girls caught in the middle. Set in Atlanta in the 1980s, the novel revolves around James Witherspoons two familiesthe public one and the secret one. When the daughters from each family meet and form a friendship, only one of them knows they are sisters. It is a relationship destined to explode when secrets are revealed and illusions shattered. As Jones explores the backstories of her rich yet flawed charactersthe father, the two mothers, the grandmother, and the uncleshe reveals the joy, as well as the destruction, they brought to one anothers lives. At the heart of it all are the two lives at stake, and like the best writersthink Toni Morrison with The Bluest EyeJones portrays the fragility of these young girls with raw authenticity as they seek love, demand attention, and try to imagine themselves as women.