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.

'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. It's one of those 'just one more chapter' kinds of books that require much last-minute changing of plans, because real life feels far less amusing, appalling, shocking, and loving than the world of its characters.' 'The most immersive novel I read in 2011. This is a book I'll read more than once.' Tayari Jones has written a novel filled with characters I'll never forget. 'Silver Sparrow will break your heart before you even know it. 'Charting a vast emotional unknown is Tayari Jones's compelling third novel, Silver Sparrow, in which a teenage girl's coming of age in 1980s Atlanta is shadowed by her dawning understanding of a corrosive secret - her father's second family.' Jones's skill for wry understatement never wavers.' Kevin Wilson in a Salon feature on writers' favorite books of 2011 It is amazing to watch, time and time again in this book, how Jones reveals the ways in which family both creates and destroys our identity.' 'In Silver Sparrow-an amazing novel about a man with two families, one hidden and one public-Jones does something breathtaking and difficult: She renders a unique family dynamic with such precision and sensitivity that it becomes universal. Michele Norris of NPR's All Things Considered

'This is a complicated, heartbreaking and very rich story about how secret sisters find each other but lose as much as they gain in the process.' 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.'

Silver sparrow by tayari jones