Ophra's Book Club 2.0 / The Twelve Tribes of Hattie

built himself up from nothing without any help from anyone. And if he had not been able to save his mother from becoming a mule, at least he had never been one himself. For most of his life, this had seemed like the most important thing, not to be anybody s mule. Then Hattie came along with all of those children, that multitude of children, and she didn t have a mark of them on her. She spoke like she d gone to one of those finishing schools for society Negro girls that they have down south. It was as though she d been dropped into a life of squalor and indignities that should not have been hers. With such a woman, if he would only try a bit harder, he might become a family man. It is true that he had not met Hattie s children, but their names Billups and Six and Bell were seductive as the names of foreign cities. In his imagination they were not so much children as they were small docile copies of Hattie.
 
What happened? he asked Hattie. Ruthie kicked at her swaddling. She looked very like him. The old wives tale says babies look like their fathers when they are new to the world. Ruthie was light-skinned like him and Hattie, lighter than August. Of course, Lawrence had not seen Hattie s other children and could not know that most of them were this same milky tea color.
 
Did August put his hands on you? Lawrence asked.
 
He s not that kind of man, she answered sharply.
 
Anybody is, if his manhood is wounded enough.
 
Hattie looked at him in alarm.
 
A lot of men, I mean, Lawrence said.
 
Hattie turned her face to the window. She would need money that was certain and they would be able to spend more t

illuminating version of the twentieth century African-American experience belongs alongside those of Toni Morrison, Alice Walker and Zora Neale Hurston. Newsday

Hypnotic. . . . In this evocative, ambitious novel, the tragedy is biblical, the reckoning stretches over generations, and a gravitas is granted to otherwise-invisible women and men. The Plain Dealer

Beautifully imagined and elegantly written. . . . Ayana Mathis is a hugely talented writer who has authored a wise and ambitious first novel. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Visceral, heart-wrenching. . . . An exceptional first novel. St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Written with elegance and remarkable poise. . . . [A novel] as much about our need for joy as it is about our struggles against bitterness. The Guardian (London)

Astonishing. . . . Sounds a depth charge into a character s life, a charge so powerful we forget we re reading, we forget the long history of African-Americans in the twentieth century has already been told. We are simply with someone, on a journey, that began long ago and has one determined, sometimes deranged source. Her name is Hattie Shepherd and it s a name you ll hear a lot of in years to come. The Toronto Star

Glistens with a quiet, hopeful beauty. . . . This book is a powerful ode to romantic and familial love. National Post

Tough, truthful, wonderfully controlled writing. . . . This fresh, powerful first novel turns the lives of Hattie s children into an epic of America in the twentieth century. The Times (London)

An impressive debut: tender, tough and unflinching. Daily Mail

Vibrant and compassionate. . . . The characters are full of life, mingled thing that it is, and dignified by the writer s judicious tenderness towards them. This first novel is a work of rare maturity. Marilynne Robinson

Beautiful and necessary from the very first sentence. The human lives it renders are on every page lowdown and glorious, fallen and redeemed, and all at the same time. They would be too heartbreaking to follow, in fact, were they not observed in such a generous and artful spirit of hope, in a spirit of mercy, in the spirit of love. Paul Harding

Remarkable. . . .Mathis weaves this story with confidence, proving herself a gifted and powerful writer. Publishers Weekly (starred)

An excellent debut. . . . Appealingly earthbound and plainspoken, and the book s structure is ingenious. Kirkus Reviews (starred)

Stunning. . . . Mathis writes with blazing insight into the complexities of sexuality, marriage, family relationships, backbone, fraudulence, and racism in a molten novel of lives racked with suffering yet suffused with beauty. Booklist (starred)