The Twelve Tribes of Hattie

by Ayana Mathis
4 comments 4 stars
 
The Twelve Tribes of Hattie, Ayana Mathis

For fans of Toni Morrison, an unforgettably powerful novel about a mother's courage, sacrifice and love, set against the volatile history of twentieth century America.

Available Formats

  • Hardback
    $39.99 RRP
    ISBN: 9780091944186
    Published: 18/01/2013
    Imprint: Hutchinson
    Extent: 256 pages
    Stock Level: Temporarily out of Stock
    Please note: This information is intended for booksellers only and does not reflect the number of copies currently available in stores. If you are not a bookseller and wish to purchase this book, please contact your local bookstore, or click on the buy now button to find a good retailer.
  • Trade Paperback
    $34.99 RRP
    ISBN: 9780091944193
    Published: 04/01/2013
    Imprint: Hutchinson
    Extent: 256 pages
    Stock Level: HIGH
    Please note: This information is intended for booksellers only and does not reflect the number of copies currently available in stores. If you are not a bookseller and wish to purchase this book, please contact your local bookstore, or click on the buy now button to find a good retailer.
  • EBook
    CHECK RETAILER PRICE
    ISBN: 9781448134397
    Published: 18/01/2013
    Imprint: Cornerstone Digital
    Extent: 256 pages
  • Paperback
    $26.99 RRP
    ISBN: 9780099558705
    Published: 06/09/2013
    Imprint: Windmill Books
    Extent: 256 pages
    Stock Level: Not Available
    Please note: This information is intended for booksellers only and does not reflect the number of copies currently available in stores. If you are not a bookseller and wish to purchase this book, please contact your local bookstore, or click on the buy now button to find a good retailer.
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When Hattie clambered from a train, her skirt still hemmed with Georgia mud and the dream of Philadelphia sitting round as a marble in her mouth, she couldn't guess that two years later, aged sixteen, she'd be fighting to keep her baby twins alive.

Saddled with a husband who will bring her nothing but disappointment, she raises nine children with grit and monumental courage, but no tenderness. She knows the world will not be kind to them and wants to prepare them as best she can. As her sons and daughters buck against their fates, she feels every one of their triumphs and heartbreaks, for they are all bound together.


A searing portrait of twentieth century America told through the story of an unforgettable family, a transfixing drama of bitterness and love and a ferocious vision of humanity at its rawest; The Twelve Tribes of Hattie is a debut of extraordinary distinction.

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"‘A vibrant and compassionate portrait of a family hardened and scattered by circumstance and yet deeply a family. Its language is elegant in its purity and rigor. 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, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of GILEAD and Orange Prize-winner of HOME

"‘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. A treasure of a novel.’" - Paul Harding, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of TINKERS

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