Leaving Atlanta

Tayari Jones

May 2009 · Sold by Grand Central Publishing

About this eBook

From the author of the Oprah's Book Club Selection An American Marriage, here is a beautifully evocative novel that proves why Tayari Jones is "one of the most important voices of her generation" (Essence).
It was the end of summer, a summer during the two-year nightmare in which Atlanta's African-American children were vanishing and twenty-nine would be found murdered by 1982. Here fifth-grade classmates Tasha Baxter, Rodney Green, and Octavia Harrison will discover back-to-school means facing everyday challenges in a new world of safety lessons, terrified parents, and constant fear.

The moving story of their struggle to grow up-and survive- shimmers with the piercing, ineffable quality of childhood, as it captures all the hurts and little wins, the all-too-sudden changes, and the merciless, outside forces that can sweep the young into adulthood and forever shape their lives.

PRAISE FOR TAYARI JONES
"Tayari Jones is blessed with vision to see through to the surprising and devastating truths at the heart of ordinary lives, strength to wrest those truths free, and a gift of language to lay it all out, compelling and clear." -- Michael Chabon

"Tayari Jones has emerged as one of the most important voices of her generation." -- Essence

"One of America's finest writers." -- Nylon.com

"Tayari Jones is a wonderful storyteller." -- Ploughsharesspan

Ratings and reviews

I found this book very interesting from a literary standpoint. The writer did take some liberties to make the real life murders work as a backdrop for her novel. It's a rare gift that an author can make you care about not just one, but 3 characters. Each had a distinct voice and view. It shows the ripple affect of the Atlanta Child Killer's murder spree on each protagonist.

Letting us see that summer of angst, fear, and innocence through the eyes and voices of the children, had me on the edge of my seat. Tayari Jones did a fantastic job!

What an incredible point of view. I didn't want this book to end.

About the author

Tayari Jones is the author of four novels, including Silver Sparrow, The Untelling, Leaving Atlanta, and An American Marriage, which was an Oprah's Book Club Selection and winner of the Women's Prize for Fiction (formerly known as the Orange Prize), Aspen Words Prize, and an NAACP Image Award, as well as appearing on Barack Obama's summer reading list and year-end roundup. She holds degrees from Spelman College, Arizona State University, and the University of Iowa. She is an Andrew D. White Professor-at-Large at Cornell University and the Charles Howard Candler Professor of Creative Writing at Emory University.