Sometimes the year’s buzziest book takes a while to show up, but the buzziest 2026 book made waves from the jump, landing a well-deserved Oprah Book Club pick. Collecting praise from critics and the general reader alike, Kin by Tayari Jones is one of few books I expect to see on every Best Books of 2026, So Far, list that releases.
Jones isn’t a newcomer to success. She’s been writing great books since she was a grad student, and her 2018 novel, An American Marriage, was also an Oprah Book Club selection. Jones’s newest is a novel of love, friendship, and family that goes soul-deep, and you really won’t want to miss out.
Kin by Tayari Jones
Kin is told from the perspectives of cradle friends Vernice and Annie, both of whom lost their mothers early in life and are brought up by their aunt and grandmother, respectively. In chapters of alternating perspectives, their early years unwind, their deep and abiding bond immediately clear, until Annie makes a decision that plows a rift through their friendship. The young Black women strike out on diverging journeys through the South, growing up against the backdrop of the growing civil rights movement.
The central theme of sisterhood and a strong streak of humor give this story levity. But the when and where of this coming-of-age sets us up to reflect on the gravity of a new generation of Black Americans gaining more access to upward mobility and freedom of a kind while still contending with the deeply racist, oppressive, and violent systems and norms that continue to make life treacherous. With one path running steadfast through academic achievement toward the upper echelons of African American society and the other through working class life toward the heart’s desire, Kin captures a sliding doors moment of two girls from the same small town and from very similar circumstances navigating different worlds within the Black South. Through it all, they remain tethered to each other and their beginning.
This story is full of surprises, including representing the further marginalizing experience of being a queer Black woman, and I reveled in going on a journey with Vernice and Annie through Jones’s expert storytelling. Once you read Kin, you’ll understand why everyone, myself included, is captivated by this book.
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