When Ayana Mathis published her debut novel The Twelve Tribes of Hattie in 2012, a very influential reader named Oprah Winfrey fell in love with it — then so did everyone else.
Now Mathis has a new novel, The Unsettled. It follows the lives of three generations of the same family: Dutchess, who lives in a Black community with deep roots, her daughter Ava, who has uprooted herself and has unsuccessfully tried to find a place that feels like home, and Ava’s son Toussaint, who is 10-years-old in the beginning of the book and trying desperately to keep his head above water as he and his mother navigate homelessness in Philadelphia.
Mathis is a graduate of the Iowa Writer’s Workshop. She will be at the Iowa City Book Festival on October 14. She joined Talk of Iowa to discuss her new novel.
Guests:
- Ayana Mathis, author
