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    The Twelve Tribes of Hattie: A Novel
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    The Twelve Tribes of Hattie: A Novel
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    The Twelve Tribes of Hattie: A Novel
    Audiobook10 hours

    The Twelve Tribes of Hattie: A Novel

    Written by Ayana Mathis

    Narrated by Adenrele Ojo, Bahni Turpin and Adam Lazarre-White

    3.5/5

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    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    An Oprah's Book Club 2.0 selection.

    The arrival of a major new voice in contemporary fiction.

    A debut of extraordinary distinction: Ayana Mathis tells the story of the children of the Great Migration through the trials of one unforgettable family.

    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. Captured here in twelve luminous narrative threads, their lives tell the story of a mother's monumental courage and the journey of a nation.

    Beautiful and devastating, Ayana Mathis's The Twelve Tribes of Hattie is wondrous from first to last-glorious, harrowing, unexpectedly uplifting, and blazing with life. An emotionally transfixing novel, a searing portrait of striving in the face of insurmountable adversity, an indelible encounter with the resilience of the human spirit and the driving force of the American dream.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateDec 6, 2012
    ISBN9780804127264
    Unavailable
    The Twelve Tribes of Hattie: A Novel
    Author

    Ayana Mathis

    AYANA MATHIS’s first novel, The Twelve Tribes of Hattie, was a New York Times bestseller and the second selection for Oprah’s Book Club 2.0. It has been translated into sixteen languages. Mathis’s non-fiction has been published in the New York Times, the Atlantic, the Financial Times and Rolling Stone. Mathis is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. She was born in Philadelphia and currently lives in New York City, where she teaches in Hunter College’s MFA creative writing program.

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    Reviews for The Twelve Tribes of Hattie

    3.5/5

    479 ratings70 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Good but bleak.
    • 3/5
      This book surprised me into tears at the end. Not necessarily because of the ending itself, but because it had snuck up on me and touched me. The book is about Hattie and her 11 children and one grandchild - her tribes - and their lives. It starts when she is 16, and goes through to her 70s. The stories within are told from different perspectives and skip large chunks of time. I was sad for the pain her children were in, almost certainly traceable to her lack of open affection or tenderness with them. That aloofness, get-down-to-business-ness is explained in the first heartbreaking chapter, and just when you think Hattie has built an impenetrable wall around her heart, you get glimpses of her private life that show you the girl she once was. The writing is lovely and the voices are distinct; it's not a happy or easy read, but I would definitely recommend it.
    • 4/5
      The Twelve Tribes of HattieDescriptive but disjointed(narration flaws)3.5 starsThe book is a series of short stories that gave the reader a glimpse into the lives of Hattie and her children at particular times in their lives. Hattie is cold and isn't the type of mother to attend to her children's emotional needs due to scars, which are raw, in her own life. Their stories, some I could identify with indirectly, were heartbreaking and memorable. Just like their mother, none lived happy lives. The ending was somewhat pleasant but wasn't, at all, what I was expecting. The author (Mathis) should consider doing a sequel, detailing what happened to Hattie's children instead of the novel leaving readers with unanswered questions. It's worth recommending but be warned, it's disturbing.
    • 3/5
      I so wanted to love this book chronicling the Great Migration through the lens of Hattie and her many offspring. Hattie, her mother and sisters fled Georgia for the North in 1925. Landing in Philadelphia, Hattie faces the oncoming turmoil of multiple decades (ending in 1980) with varying degrees of dignity, resignation and anger. The author seems quite taken with the BIG IDEA tackling racism, sexism, infidelity, pedophilia, homosexuality, schizophrenia and poverty in successive chapters. Any of these topics would be sufficient fodder for a splendid book. Each topic gets a nod before we fly off onto the next one. Mathis is a promising and evocative writer who handles dialogue particularly well. Her introductory chapter is by far the best -- Hattie's deep love for her infant twin children is palpable. I was quite affected by her desperation over their worsening health. I look forward to reading her next effort -- if she hasn't used up all her ideas in this debut effort.
    • 4/5
      This is a well-written, if incredibly depressing, saga of an African-American family in the twentieth century. Relentlessly tragic from the first pages; nothing good ever happens to these people, and just when you think it can't get any worse, it does. The prose is nice, though.
    • 4/5
      The author uses each chapter to follow the life of each one of Hattie's children. Spanning most of the 20th century, she weaves the story together with Hattie as the central character. A quick read. I enjoyed it.
    • 4/5
      This is a devastating book, beautifully written, but devastating. In the early years of the twentieth century Hattie Shepard and her sisters journey north to Philadelphia. They hope to escape the violence of the Jim Crow south. What they find is a world that falls far short of the hopes and dreams they had for their new life. The book follows each of Hattie's children as they struggle to make their way in the world. Through these chapters we discover that a life of poverty and struggle has turned Hattie into a hardened woman. She can survive against all odds, but survival burns up all physical and emotional resources. Hattie's children experience problems of their own, from racial violence to unfulfilled marriages to mental illness.Mathis does an excellent job of portraying the harsh realities of the Great Migration. The historical details of the book are well-done. We see the cruelties of a world in which babies die for want of a few dollars' worth of penicillin, and mothers are forced to give up children they cannot afford. As fiction the strength of the chapters varied, and I found that they got stronger as they went on. Some of the conclusions of each character's story are not altogether satisfying. Still, this is a worthwhile read, as it brings to life an important part of the American story.
    • 3/5
      I think this is an excellent first book for a young author. I enjoyed reading it and glad that I did. I also rate as 3.5 stars. The excerpts from each child (or tribe member) was interesting but left me wanting to know more about them. The other thing that bothered me is the fact that every single person is so damaged. While I understand that difficult childhoods can cause damage, there are so many people who overcome that and have happy productive lives. But, still liked the book!
    • 3/5
      This was a good book, but frustrated me. It is written from the perspective of Hattie's (many) children and each chapter switches to a different point of view. The stories were all engaging, the frustration comes from the fact that they all end too soon. I felt no sense of closure at the end of a narrative; I just wanted to know when we'd return to the story and find out what happened next. That never happened. I finished the book with a vague sense of longing and wondering over the unknown fates of each character.
    • 3/5
      I grabbed this one because of Oprah...I mean, she typically has good taste in novels -- though I don't always LOVE them like she does.I didn't know much about this one going into it (I have a bad habit of NOT reading a book's description, I just dive in), so I didn't have any kind of expectation other than Oprah liked it. I did expect it to have some kind of story and that it lacked. It's more connected stories about Hattie and her children than the typical family saga. There's no action that drives the story forward. You get glimpses into Hattie's family over many decades and I enjoyed that aspect much more in the early chapters, but wanted a bit more of a story later on. By the later chapters everything just became more sad...but it started pretty sad so I guess I shouldn't have expected any kind of glimpse of hope.It was a good read, well-written, but not oh-my-goodness brilliant.
    • 4/5
      Great book and very well written for a first novel. Each chapter was so intense and sad, that I had to read them individually. It's a study on the importance of a loving, caring mother in the emotional growth of her children. As Hattie finds out, children require more than food and shelter to grow into independent, confident adults.
    • 4/5
      I liked it--but not as much as I thought I would, based on all the rave reviews. So many sad, dysfunctional people! Reminded me of Olive Kitteridge, in format and, to some degree, in the personality of the title character of each book. I also kept thinking that I would see the connection to the twelve tribes of Israel, but if it was there (which it must have been, given the title), it was too subtle for me.
    • 4/5
      Mathis' debut novel looks at the lives of the children of Hattie, who moved from the segregated south to Philadelphia and married August, who her family thought was beneath her. Its not a pretty life--that of a black in the north. Spanning the time from 1925 to 1980, Hattie's life is presented through her children and her grandchild--the twelve tribes of Hattie. Mathis has the same ability with words that Toni Morrison has, only she's a little more plain spoken.
    • 4/5
      This was a typical Oprah pick in that it was an very sad story. The main character which this story centers around is Hattie, a mother raising her famiy in the most extreme poverty and the life changing event that affects the way she interacts with her children. Told in the perspective of each of her children gives this book make for a very interesting read.
    • 5/5
      Hattie Shepherd's life has been undeniably hard. We meet her at aged sixteen when she is expecting twins. Her husband has already named them, such is his excitement. But tragedy is to follow and so begins a life full of trial and hardship. Hattie and August are part of the huge black migration from the south of America to Philadelphia in the early to mid 1920s. In search of a better life, their expectations are never met.....and the babies keep on coming!This a a beautifully written debut told with warmth and compassion. Each chapter is dedicated to each of Hattie's children and, later, one of her grandchildren. The effect of struggling times and their mother's tempestuous marriage to a serial philanderer takes it's toll on every last one, but in many different ways. August tries to be a good father, but not hard enough. Every night sees him out drinking and womanising, whilst Hattie is trying to keep food on the table for her ever growing family. Eventually, even Hattie seeks comfort in the arms of another man, but somehow in a more dignified fashion!Following Hattie's life from a teenager to her early seventies, paints a picture of how society and attitudes have changed over the years, but not always for the better. I read this beautiful novel in 2 evenings....it flows from the pages. The only slight criticism I have is that we don't completely learn how each of Hattie's children developed their own, sometimes self-destructing, behaviours or learn exactly what happens to them all. That would have taken a much longer novel and it may well be that Ayana Mathis wanted us to develop our own opinions and understandings.Highly recommended, a must read, and one of Oprah's recommendations...which are always spot on.
    • 4/5
      As a teenager, Hattie leaves Georgia with her family to start a better life in Philadelphia. She meets August and has to get married at age 17. She gives birth to twins and optimistically names them Philadelphia and Jubilee, some "reaching forward" names in honor of their new lives. In the first heartbreaking chapter, the babies succumb to pneumonia, and the promise and hope they represented are gone from Hattie's life. This is a joyless book about poverty and dashed hopes that is told through the lives of Hattie's nine living children and one grandchild. Each grown child has its own chapter to tell their personal heartache, much of which is blamed on their mother. I tend to gravitate toward dark stories and don't always expect happy endings, but I do like to see more character development. This is more of a collection of interconnected stories than a cohesive novel. I would have liked some transition between the stories and more interaction between the siblings. The writing was solid and the first chapter was promising but ultimately I was disappointed that there was no light at the end of the book. The author makes it clear that leaving oppression behind doesn't necessarily eliminate the crushing of the spirit that seems to have been handed down to the children in this family. It seems to me that the odds were in favor of at least one or two of the children escaping from bleakness. There are two stories that leave room for hope, though we will never know because they ended so abruptly.I'd like to end my review on a more upbeat tone. While the book is indeed melancholy, it does an excellent job of showing how the legacy of grief can be passed on. The author shows great promise as she can write beautifully about grim situations and has created some memorable characters. This would be an excellent book for discussion as there is much left to be said about what might happen in each character's life. Ironically, I liked this book for one of the same reasons that I criticized: the brief stories left me wanting more. This is the author's debut book. She shows a lot of promise and I am looking forward to her next book with anticipation.
    • 4/5
      This is an amazing debut novel that begins with a tragic loss when Hattie is seventeen years old. The background and character of Hattie Shepherd emerge as the novel progresses through chapters featuring her children's lives and memories. Hattie is strong, Hattie is flawed and Hattie raises her children in a culture unknown to most of us. In a perfect literary world, each of these chapters will become a novel. Reminiscent in style and quality to the wonderful novel, Olive Kitteridge, by Elizabeth Strout, this is a book that is a brilliant portrayal of a woman and her family. I am not an Oprah fan, but I do applaud her for bringing this book to the attention of those who don't normally read literary fiction.
    • 4/5
      This book doesn't quite live up to hype. The story is told by multiple narrators connected to Hattie by blood - her children, her sister, her grandchild. We seldom hear Hattie's voice and can only guess at her motives. The author shows us Hattie's impact on the lives of those around her, principally her children. What I didn't get was a cohesive view of Hattie - just glimpses of her hopes and dreams, her disappointments, her strength, her love. The story begins with an experience that changes her, affects her deeply and focuses her will for her children to survive. Surviving isn't the same as thriving. What a price some of them pay to survive.
    • 4/5
      The Twelve Tribes of Hattie is an Oprah bookcase pub selection. It is fraught with dysfunction, angst and hardship all components of an Oprah selection. That being said , it was well written with great character development. The twelve tribes refers to the eleven children , with one grandchild, that Hattie raised. A story depicting the power of motherhood. Not a pleasant read as some of it can become depressing but definitely a story worth the time.
    • 4/5
      I am almost finished with this novel and I like it a lot. A colored family moves north to Philadelphia from Georgia in the 1920s. They find a new world. Hattie the protagonist marries and has many, many children after losing her first children, twins, to pneumonia. As the book progresses there is a story about each child and each life is so different. Some are down and out and others are living as the bourgeoisie. The contrasts are remarkable. I will definitely will finish this book. It is worth a detour.
    • 4/5
      The book opens with a heart rendering tragedy which quickly captures the reader's interest. The great migration, the early 1900's and a mother with her three daughters move to Philadelphia to escape the Jim Crow south. Things do not work out as planned, Hattie has a hard life but does manage to keep nine children alive with very little help. Hattie is a formidable character, she has a strength and resiliencythat keeps her going, but this does not mean she does not carry hurts and scars. The structure of this novel was a bit difficult for me to get used to at first. It is divided and narrated in chapters by some of her children, her husband and Hattie herself. The ones narrated by Hattie were my favorite. This novel follows Hattie and her children for over a decade, and by the end of the book I really felt for Hattie and love the fact that even at the end of the book she never gives up hope. A well written first novel, told in very matter of fact prose, in somewhat of a different narrative style. Well worth reading.
    • 4/5
      The backstory: The debut novel of Ayana Mathis, The Twelve Tribes of Hattie, was one of the spring 2013 that excited me most. When Oprah picked it as her second Book Club 2.0 read and pushed up the book's release date, I moved it to the top of my queue.The basics: The Twelve Tribes of Hattie is the life story of Hattie Shepherd. It spans from 1925 to 1980.When she fifteen, Hattie, her mother and sister moved from Georgia to Philadelphia. There she married soon after and gave birth to twins: the first of many, many children. My thoughts: The first chapter of this novel is devastating and heart-wrenching and still somehow hopeful. Both of Hattie's twins are sick with pneumonia in the middle of the night. Mathis shifts from the current minutes to Hattie's memories beautifully. In the second chapter, however, the action shifts, both in time and narrator. Suddenly it's 1948, and Hattie's son Floyd is a musician traveling through the South. My understanding of this novel shifted, and I expected to read a chapter from the point of view of each of Hattie's children, thus coming to understand her as a mother and as a woman. In time, though, Mathis shifts back to Hattie. One consequence of this narrative structure was it's disjointedness. I never truly got a feel for this novel as I was reading it, but upon further reflection, particularly of the stunning final chapter, I did. At times it felt like a collection of linked stories. While Hattie was a part of all of them, in each story the reader glimpsed into the life of one of her children, most of whom were only previously mentioned in passing. While Hattie weaved through all of the stories, her children did not. While this novel is the story of Hattie's life, it's also a commentary on the Great Migration:"He thought of the South as a single undifferentiated mass of states where the people talked too slow, like August, and left because of the whites, only to spend the rest of their lives being nostalgic for the most banal and backwoods things: paper shell pecans, sweet gum trees, gigantic peaches."There's also an extreme sadness to this novel. As I read about more and more of Hattie's children, I couldn't help but think, "him too?" or "her too?" Can no one in this family catch a break in life? This darkness is crucial to Hattie and her views on life and religion: "Hattie believed in God's might, but she didn't believe in his interventions. At best, he was indifferent. God wasn't any of her business, and she wasn't any of his. In church on Sundays she looked around the sanctuary and wondered if anyone else felt the way she did, if anyone else was there because they believed in the ritual and the hymn singing and good preaching more than they believed in a responsive, sympathetic God."Favorite passage: "It seemed to him that every time he made one choice in his life, he said no to another. All of those things he could not do or be were huddled inside of him; they might spring up at any moment, and he would be hobbled with regret."The verdict: The Twelve Tribes of Hattie is a difficult novel in many ways. As a novel of the Great Migration, it is hinged on a hope we know will fail, and taking the journey of a generation's disappointment is depressing. Still, Mathis is a bold and lyrical writer. The first and last chapters will stay with me for quite some time.
    • 4/5
      It is not easy being a mother. It doesn't matter what year you were born, your race, your economic status and it doesn't matter how many children you have. Hattie knew her life wasn't going anywhere fast in Georgia in 1923 so she quickly flees to Philadelphia and marries only to have her life get more complicated instead of easier. Her first joy is the birth of twins and her first (and possibly greatest)tragedy happens at their death from pneumonia. Each chapter is narrated by one of Hattie's nine surviving children. Through them we see a harsh side of her, her disappointment in life that shows itself at every turn and the love of her children which she keeps to herself. Fans of The Color Purple and Their Eyes Were Watching God will find themselves falling for The Twelve Tribes of Hattie. Each narrative will break your heart and bind you to this close but vulnerable family. Book clubs would be wise to choose this book as it offers a myriad of discussion topics. I was lucky enough to receive an advance of this author's wonderful debut and it is scheduled to be published in January 2013.
    • 3/5
      After reading all the reviews, I was sure I would enjoy this book. I found it hard to follow the Tribe. I wanted more, the end was lacking.
    • 2/5
      Don't know what it was, but this was so hard to get into.
    • 4/5
      4 stars for the writing. I did not really like Hattie although nearer the end of the book I warmed to her a bit more. I could not believe that all her children could be so miserable. Surely some of them could have been happy. It was a rather depressing book.
    • 4/5
      I usually stay far away from Oprah book club books but the subject matter (especially The Great Migration) intrigued me.

      I enjoyed the book which really amounts to a lot of loosely connected stories. The only real continuation is Hattie( and August). Most of the other sibling rarely relate or talk about the others ( with one or two exceptions) and the book spans a long time. I found the first few chapter the most interesting and kind of wanted to skip some of the latter chapter, but overall I really enjoyed the book.
    • 4/5
      Part of Oprah's 2.0 reboot, so the kind of gritty, characters-with-heart-but-lousy-circumstances book she is known to choose. Hattie is the kingpin, but each of her (12!) children gets a say and a specific place in history. Hattie and the man she married-beneath-her August make a move from Georgia to the north (Philadelphia) in 1923. The hope is for a better life, but August is already a strike against her. Then her twin babies die and the beginning is anything but. Hattie is only a teenager at the time, so she has plenty more opportunities for children and the reader gets a story for each of them, chronologically though not in birth order. Since it is only one episode per child and they occur at various ages, it feels a little like you never get the full picture, though there is casual mention throughout in each other's chapters. Part of that could be the hazard of listening too. Ultimately, each one could almost stand alone as a short story. They all have different views of Hattie too, depending on their place in the lineup which is always true in a big family. Some remember a nurturer, some remember a bitter angry woman during the marriage's tough times; some remember a deserter when Hattie steps out on the family for a few days as she contemplates a life with a better (but not) man. Spanning the years from 1923 to 1980 (when Hattie is raising a grandchild, technically #12?) there are important moments of history that impact the black family, and there are authentic voices throughout. Hattie is a survivor and one of whom you'd say: "She did the best she could."
    • 4/5
      Very powerful portraits of agony and pain of members of one Afro-American family.
    • 3/5
      Compelling, but more so in the early stories than in the later ones. Maybe because the unrelenting hardship and misery get harder to take in. I guess I shouldn't expect happiness in a book with an Oprah's book club sticker on it.