Search results
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.
- Other Writing
© 2023 Ayana Mathis. All rights reserved.
- Contact
Kelly Shi Knopf Penguin Random House kshi@prh.com. Kimberly...
- Other Writing
Dec 6, 2012 · Hattie Shepherd, the title character of Ayana Mathis’s piercing debut novel, is at once a tragic heroine with mythic dimensions and an entirely recognizable mother and wife trying to...
- Michiko Kakutani
Jan 3, 2013 · Set against the backdrop of the Great Migration, Ayana Mathis’s novel is a brutal and poetic allegory about a family beset by tribulations.
Dec 6, 2012 · The Twelve Tribes of Hattie is the story of Hattie Shepherd, a woman who at the age of fifteen participated in The Great Migration with her mother and two sisters in 1923. Hattie's father is murdered by a couple of whites in town wanting to take over his blacksmith business.
- (40.2K)
- Hardcover
The novel tells the story of Hattie Shepherd, who leaves Georgia for Philadelphia in 1923. Her 11 children and one grandchild are Hattie's "12 tribes"—whom we meet sequentially in 12 distinct narrative threads.
People also ask
What are the Twelve Tribes of Hattie about?
Who are the Twelve Tribes of Hattie by Ayana Mathis?
How many children does Hattie have?
What does Hattie's family represent?
Jan 3, 2013 · True, the story begins during the Great Migration, as Hattie Shepherd leaves the Jim Crow South for a better life in Philadelphia, and it follows the Shepherds through five-plus decades.
Dec 10, 2012 · “The Twelve Tribes of Hattie” was written in Iowa in just under two years, after Ms. Mathis abandoned a fictionalized memoir that never jelled. The 243-page novel tells the story of Hattie and...
