Standalone Novels
| Title | Published | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|
| The Twelve Tribes of Hattie | 2012 | Buy |
| A Violent Woman | 2022 | Buy |
| The Unsettled | 2023 | Buy |
Ayana Mathis grew up in Philadelphia and studied at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Her debut novel, “The Twelve Tribes of Hattie,” was chosen as the second selection for Oprah’s Book Club 2.0 in 2012, bringing immediate attention to her work. The novel traces the Shepherd family from 1920s Georgia through decades of life in Philadelphia, with each chapter centering on a different one of Hattie’s children.
Mathis writes about the interior lives of people shaped by migration, poverty, and the search for something better. Her prose is precise and emotionally direct, and her interest in how family history echoes across generations gives her work a weight that extends beyond any single character’s story. Her later novel “The Unsettled” (2023) continues these explorations with a story set in 1980s Philadelphia.