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Read an Excerpt From The Twelve Tribes of Hattie by Ayana Mathis: The Newest Oprah's Book Club 2.0™ Selection

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The Twelve Tribes of Hattie by Ayana Mathis has been chosen by Oprah as the newest selection in Oprah’s Book Club 2.0™! This gorgeous novel signals the arrival of a major new voice in contemporary fiction. In announcing her pick, Oprah declared, “The opening pages of Ayana’s debut took my breath away. I can’t remember when I read anything that moved me in quite this way, besides the work of Toni Morrison.”

The Twelve Tribes of Hattie is wondrous from first to last—glorious, harrowing, unexpectedly uplifting, and blazing with life. In 1923, fifteen-year-old Hattie Shepherd flees Georgia and settles in Philadelphia, hoping for a chance at a better life. Instead, she marries a man who will bring her nothing but disappointment and watches helplessly as her firstborn twins succumb to an illness a few pennies could have prevented. Hattie gives birth to nine more children whom she raises with grit and mettle and not an ounce of the tenderness they crave. She vows to prepare them for the calamitous difficulty they are sure to face in their later lives, to meet a world that will not love them, a world that will not be kind.

You can join Oprah’s Book Club 2.0™ at Oprah.com/BookClub, on Facebook, and on Twitter. Participate in the conversation online with the official hashtag #OprahsBookClub.

Read on for an excerpt from this vibrant book!