When a books editor at O Magazine expressed interest in reviewing her debut novel, The Twelve Tribes of Hattie (Knopf), author Ayana Mathis was thrilled. “They said they needed a quote from me right away and I couldn’t figure out why, but I thought ‘sure’ and sent it off. I was expecting a fifteen minute phone conversation with the books editor.” Little did she know that Oprah herself would be the one making the call. “I picked up the phone and she said, ‘This is Oprah.’ And I said, ‘No it isn’t.’”
Oprah had personally selected Ayana Mathis’ powerful debut novel as her second pick for the newly launched Oprah Book Club 2.0. Since then, the book has taken off. According to Oprah, the day the selection was announced, so many people tried to buy The Twelve Tribes of Hattie on Amazon that the page crashed. Ayana Mathis has since been profiled twice in The New York Times, and has spent the last two weeks on The New York Times bestseller list.
This attention is well-deserved. Mathis’ debut novel, which spans 60 years and details the trials and tribulations of Hattie Sheperd and her 11 children and one grandchild, is masterfully written. Capturing a range of settings and time periods, from a Southern jazz club in the 1940s to a beach in Vietnam in the 1960s, each member of the family is rendered with subtly and honesty—and while they aren’t always sympathetic, they are always authentic and alive.
Read more: Lambda Literary
