Silver Sparrow

To get to happily ever after, sometimes you need to start from scratch....

 

Abbey Ross, who runs her own bakery in Oakland, California, is known for her visually stunning wedding cakes. But lately, Abbeys own love life has become stale. According to her best friend, Bendrix, Abbeys not the spontaneous young woman she was when they were teenagers listening to the Cure and creating attention-grabbing graffiti. Of course, her failed relationship with a womanizing art forger might have something to do with that. Nevertheless, its time for Abbey to step out of the kitchen—and her comfort zone—and Bendrix has even handpicked a man for her to date.

 

Samuel Howard is everything Abbeys dreamed of: handsome, successful, and looking to raise a family. But a creamy icing might be needed to hide a problem or two. When Samuel complains about disrespect for the institution of marriage, Abbeys reminded of her nontraditional family, with thirteen children from various mothers. And when Samuel rails about kids having kids, Abbey thinks of her twenty-year-old sister whos recently revealed her pregnancy.

 

Soon Abbey is facing one disaster after another and struggling to make sense of it all. Her search for love has led her down a bitter path, but with the help of her unique family and unwavering friends, she just might find the ooh la la that makes life sweet.

READERS GUIDE INCLUDED

“Tayari Jones has taken Atlanta for her literary terroir, and like many of our finest novelists, she gives readers a sense of place in a deeply observed way. But more than that, Jones has created in her main characters tour guides of that region: honest, hurt, observant and compelling young women whose voices cannot be ignored . . . Impossible to put down until you find out how these sisters will discover their own versions of family.”
—Los Angeles Times

“An amazing, amazing read.”
—Jennifer Weiner on NBCs Today show

“Tayari Joness immensely pleasurable new novel pulls off a minor miracle . . . Jones crafts an affecting tale about things, big and small, we forfeit to forge a family . . . There are no winners in this empathetic and provocative story, just survivors.” —More

“A love story . . . Full of perverse wisdom and proud joy . . . Joness skill for wry understatement never wavers.” —O: The Oprah Magazine

“That Jones offers no pat answers is the secret sauce spicing Silver Sparrow. The prose goes down so compulsively that it might be easy to miss the heart of the story. She shines a light on a particular disenfranchised group, the children who grow up in second families.” —The Denver Post

“Populating this absorbing novel is a vivid cast of characters . . . Jones writes dialogue that is realistic and sparkling, with an intuitive sense of how much to reveal and when . . . One of literatures most intriguing extended families.” —The Washington Post

“Jones gives us permission to love all of the novels women, though they are flawed and often refuse to love each other. Thats a recipe for great book club discussions.” —Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

"Silver Sparrow brings to mind John Irving in the ways it makes an epic story out of ordinary lives. The good, the bad, and the ugly all happen in this marvelously moving tale. Read this book! I can't say it any more plainly than that." --Victor LaValle, author of Big Machine

"Jones is a master, and Silver Girl is a revelation, alive with meaning, heartbreak, and hope." -- Jayne Anne Phillips, author of Lark and Termite

"[An] expansive third novel...Jones effectively blends the sisters' varied, flawed perspectives as the characters struggle with presumptions of family and the unwieldy binds of love and identity."--Booklist

Essence

"If your mom is a fan of emotionally charged morality tales (and whose mom isn't?), she's going to devour Tayari Jones's third novel, Silver Sparrow, in a single sitting. Jones, a native Atlantan, once again mines her town for material and strikes serious pay dirt. Sparrow introduces us to sisters Dana Lynn Yarboro and Bunny Chaurisse Witherspoon, who were born four months apart from different mothers and have never met. One reason? Their father, James Witherspoon, is a bigamist who has gone to great pains to ensure they remain in the dark about each other. And when they do meet, that's when Sparrow gets really good."--Essence

Minneapolis Star Tribune

"A graceful and shining work about finding the truth." - Library Journal, starred review

Los Angeles Times

“A tense, layered and evocative tale...Jones explores the rivalry and connection of siblings, the meaning of beauty, the perils of young womanhood, the complexities of romantic relationships and the contemporary African-American experience.”—Minneapolis Star Tribune The Today Show

“Impossible to put down until you find out how these sisters will discover their own versions of family.”—Los Angeles Times The Root

“Silver Sparrow is rich, substantive, meaningful. It is also, at turns, funny and sharp, haunting and heartbreaking.”—The Root More

“Absorbing . . . Jones writes dialogue that is realistic and sparkling, with an intuitive sense of how much to reveal and when.”--Washington Post Vogue

“Charting a vast emotional unknown is Tayari Jones's compelling third novel, Silver Sparrow, in which a teenage girl's coming of age in 1990s Atlanta is shadowed by her dawning understanding of a corrosive secret - her father's second family.” - Vogue The Oklanhoman

“Nakedly honest...dazzlingly charged” —Atlanta Journal Constitution Vol. 1 Brooklyn

“This is a heartbreaking story of two sisters, unknown to each other at first, who find and love each other for a short time in their lives.” - The Oklahoman Brooklyn Rail

“This is a precisely written, meticulously controlled work. Its also one that leaves room for the messiness of fragmented lives — an impressive command of the craft at hand, and its paradoxes.”—Vol. 1 Brooklyn Village Voice

“Beautifully written, Silver Sparrow will break your heart.”—Brooklyn Rail

“[Jones] is fast defining middle-class black Atlanta the way Cheever did Westchester” - Village Voice

Praise for A Pinch of Ooh La La

 

“Renee Swindle writes about the complications of love with great humor, compassion and sass. A Pinch of Ooh La La is a pure delight!”—Ellen Sussman, New York Times bestselling author of French Lessons and A Wedding in Provence

 

“I dare you to read Renee Swindle's delicious new novel, A Pinch of Ooh La La, without pulling out mixing bowls and scanning your music collection for the perfect jazz-fueled accompaniment. Swindle hits all the right notes with this unique and satisfying tale of love, friendship, and family.”—Julie Kibler, bestselling author of Calling Me Home

 

“Touching and honest, with humor and romance in just the right measures. Swindles novel confirms the healing power of family, and her writing sparkles with endearing characters. A fully satisfying read, A Pinch of Ooh La La left me with heaping spoonfuls of hope.”—Amy Sue Nathan, author of The Glass Wives

 

“You might think you know where A Pinch of Ooh La La is going when you begin reading it, but you are in for a surprising and outrageous journey. I laughed, I nodded, I shook my head and said, ‘Girl… I could not put this book down, and when I finished, I felt like I was saying goodbye to now dear friends. Im still missing the likable lead and her colorful family. So worth a read.”—Ernessa T. Carter, author of 32 Candles and The Awesome Girls Guide to Dating Extraordinary Men

With the opening line of Silver Sparrow, My father, James Witherspoon, is a bigamist, author Tayari Jones unveils a breathtaking story about a man 's deception, a family 's complicity, and two teenage girls caught in the middle.

Set in a middle-class neighborhood in Atlanta in the 1980s, the novel revolves around James Witherspoon 's two families the 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 characters the father, the two mothers, the grandmother, and the uncle she also reveals the joy, as well as the destruction, they brought to one another 's lives.

At the heart of it all are the two lives at stake, and like the best writers think Toni Morrison with The Bluest Eye Jones portrays the fragility of these young girls with raw authenticity as they seek love, demand attention, and try to imagine themselves as women, just not as their mothers.

From the New York Times Bestselling Author of An American Marriage

With the opening line of Silver Sparrow, "My father, James Witherspoon, is a bigamist," author Tayari Jones unveils a breathtaking story about a man's deception, a family's complicity, and the two teenage girls caught in the middle.

Set in a middle-class neighborhood in Atlanta in the 1980s, the novel revolves around James Witherspoon's two families--the 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. This is the third stunning novel from an author deemed "one of the most important writers of her generation" (the Atlanta Journal Constitution).

From the New York Times Bestselling Author of An American Marriage

"A love story . . . Full of perverse wisdom and proud joy . . . Jones's skill for wry understatement never wavers."
--O: The Oprah Magazine

"Silver Sparrow will break your heart before you even know it. Tayari Jones has written a novel filled with characters I'll never forget. This is a book I'll read more than once."
--Judy Blume

With the opening line of Silver Sparrow, "My father, James Witherspoon, is a bigamist," author Tayari Jones unveils a breathtaking story about a man's deception, a family's complicity, and the two teenage girls caught in the middle.

Set in a middle-class neighborhood in Atlanta in the 1980s, the novel revolves around James Witherspoon's two families--the 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. This is the third stunning novel from an author deemed "one of the most important writers of her generation" (the Atlanta Journal Constitution).

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 the two teenage girls caught in the middle.

Set in a middle-class neighborhood in Atlanta in the 1980s, the novel revolves around James Witherspoons two families—the 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. This is the third stunning novel from an author deemed “one of the most important writers of her generation” (the Atlanta Journal Constitution).

Renee Swindle is the author of Shake Down the Stars and Please, Please, Please. She lives in Oakland, California.