Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience.

What an incredible book.
Beautifully and thoughtfully written
This book is heart breaking, poignant and funny
A great read

Silver Sparrow tells the tale of two girls, living parallel but separate lives. Their father? The same man. But mothers different. One girl lives as the "known" family of the father and the other girl lives a hidden life. This book explores the impact of that dynamic on each of the children. Silver Sparrow is a slow-burn, character-driven novel.

I have to admit that I found it rather flat. I absolutely adored An American Marriage, but somehow this one just didn't live up to Jones's debut. Perhaps partially because I had such high expectations, I was disappointed. I ended up DNFing the book around the 40% mark, having gone far further with it than I might have had I got it out of the library because it was a review copy. I also set it aside for some months, hoping to come back to it with renewed interest, but I felt myself forcing myself to pick it up.

I know many people have loved this book so it's definitely worth checking out a range of reviews of this one, but I personally just found the pacing too slow, especially compared to An American Marriage, and I couldn't get invested in the characters in the same way.

I have left a one-star review simply because I DNF'd it, but I would definitely read something else from Tayari Jones, whose previous work I have loved and admired.

Dana and Chaurisse share a father but only Dana is aware of this. This is because their father, James Witherspoon, is a bigamist, secretly married to both of their mothers. Dana and her mother have always known this but the pain and responsibility of being secret while his 24/7 family is protected from their existence grows until, inevitably, everything starts to fall apart. It's a fascinating premise and the story switches effectively from Dana's more knowledgeable perspective to Chaurisse's ignorance as events come to a head.

This is the first book I've read by Tayari Jones, and I will definitely read more. She's an excellent writer and reading her work feels effortless as well as absorbing. Her characters are well-drawn and she doesn't fall into the trap of making anyone and out-and-out villain (I'm still not going to accept that James wasn't the worst of them though!) with their own weaknesses and selfish impulses. The problem I have with the novel is that it still feels like half a story. It ends just as secrets are revealed and though there is a brief return to them years after I wanted to know how they dealt with the fall-out more than I wanted the details of how the deceptions were discovered. It ended just as the most interesting part of the story was about to begin.

Wow, "Silver Sparrow" was such a roller-coaster of emotions! This is a story of two Black families, one secret, one living in a full legimate view, and one man, father to two daughters, a bigamist. Told from the perspective of Dana and Chaurisse, this is an exploration of family ties, obligations, love, duty and consequences. Through the voices of both daughters, we get to hear all the stories, secrets and connections that flow between the characters, and two versions of the story, two points of view, which in turn makes us sympathise and care about all characters. Tayari Jones writes about Black people's experiences, and I was particularly interested in a way she talks about colourism and hair as a beauty standard. But it was the narrative kept me on tenterhooks, my alliances changing as the story progressed.

Tayari Jones’ third novel (written before An American Marriage but published only in the UK after the other’s roaring success) is a searing examination into how the incessant pursuit of family can have a devastating impact on all those involved; the harm that is inflicted upon us by the failures of our parents, and the shattering of illusions that come with growing up. It is rich and beautiful, and its characters come alive - even the ones whom the reader would perhaps rather stay hidden.

Silver Sparrow by Tayari Jones
Pub Date: 19 Mar 2020

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy of this ebook in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this bittersweet exploration into the lives of two families linked by one man who both loved and betrayed the women in his lives.

Dana lives in Atlanta with her mother and sometimes her father. Her father James doesn't stay with them all the time because he has another family and another daughter the same age as Dana. Dana knows about Chaurisse but Chaurisse doesn't know about Dana. As the girls get older Dana becomes resentful as she has restrictions placed on her schooling and work opportunities as her father tries to keep his tow families separate. Then one day Chaurisse meets a girl in the Mall and their friendship blooms until secrets come out and one family is blown apart.
I loved this book, firstly because of the clever structure, the first half is narrated by Dana so the reader knows the full story, Dana is the one who knows. The second half is narrated by Chaurisse and she is the one who questions. The ending could only ever be sad for one. Although written from the perspective of a black family, this is not a book about race, it is a book about family and the complexities of growing up and loving.

In her latest novel Tayari Jones takes a simple theme – a man living in two marriages – and builds a tale that shows the possible emotional complexities and costs of the behaviour on all concerned. A long established “balance” will ultimately be overthrown when two teenage half sisters meet and trip a double family crisis. The story is at first recounted by Dana the oldest daughter (of the second marriage) and later by Chaurisse, four months younger, the daughter of the legal marriage. James Witherspoon husband and father will, with the support of his foster brother Raleigh, maintain this double life keeping his first wife Laverne in ignorance. While Petunia, his second, will be fully aware of the first family and will be constantly trying to maintain her “status” and equal entitlement for her daughter. Her habit of stalking Laverne will draw her daughter’s attention to the other family and this will ultimately lead to James making a choice between his two families.
Families do not sit in an historic vacuum; we are told that Petunia and James met in that seminal US year 1968 when Martin Luther King was assassinated. She was not particularly interested in politics, being more tied to creating a secure financial life for herself after a short but failed marriage. Although James has been married for many years he has had only one stillborn son. His first was a shotgun wedding when he, a schoolboy, impregnated 15 year old virgin Laverne. She had been absorbed into his mother’s (single parent) household and trained in housewifely arts, before then learning the family business as a hairdresser; something she still maintains through the story period. The seemingly casually unfolded facts speak to a deeper background for many rural African-American families. People were often poor, semi educated, the men absent and single women acting as the bedrock of their families. Laverne and Petunia both are trying to maintain a secure married life for their daughters and build then a “better” future, leading to education to college level, plus all the necessities that will involve. From poverty they are trying to integrate them within the wealthier “American Dream”. Remember the phrase “the personal is political”.
Both Dana and Chaurisse are largely unaware of the realities of their parents’ previous lives, how far they have travelled and how that impacts on the way they behave as mothers. Jones is brilliant at depicting the immediacy, angst and emotional turmoil of teenage life – in this case the testimonies of both. The girls grow, move into wider circles outside their families, and challenge the boundaries set for them. Dana is perhaps the wilder of the two, led by others from her circle of wealthier and more privileged families where the rules are apparently laxer and where income can undoubtedly make escaping the consequences of bad behaviour easier. Dana is seemingly constantly seeking “more” from her life through her links with other people, often looking in the wrong places. Laverne, supposedly more “simple” looks for the one friend and finds Dana.
This novel asks the reader to bring thoughts, experiences and questions to the reading as it explores the nature of family and friendship itself, together with love, care and honesty. It looks to how decent and well meaning people will compromise their lives and standards on the route to a relatively secure future for themselves and their families. It shows how habits of behaviour can become ingrained although ultimately they will cause problems and grief, particularly as secrets have a tendency to unravel themselves. And the nature of families mean that there will have to be compromise, or not, between the individuals often across generations. Established things can explode with seemingly little warning and all will have to deal with the fallout – sometimes for a lifetime. This book is one that sticks in the mind and thoughts and questions raised continue to recur or resonate, often tripped by the vagaries of ordinary life. A very fine read – seemingly “easy”, but much, much deeper.

I loved An American Marriage and was so happy to get a copy of the author’s newest book from Netgalley. I found this book a bit of a struggle to get into at times, a little bit slow going. It was worth a read but not my favourite by this author.

I really enjoyed this book! I loved the different point of views! I have love Jones’ work. She has such a beautiful way of telling real life stories and digging into the readers heart.

Silver Sparrow by Tayari Jones is a wonderfully vivid novel set in Atlanta, Georgia which explores the life of two young women; Dana and Chaurisse. They’re step sisters and share the same father, James. In fact he is married to both of their mothers something which Chaurisse and her mother are blissfully unaware of. James is a bigamist who married Chaurisse’s mother when he was a young man and then, years later met and fell in love with Dana’s mother, Gwen. She becomes his other wife, the woman which he keeps secret and the mother of the child which he will never publicly claim.

Written from firstly Dana’s viewpoint and then Chaurisse’s, we learn about their lives, their relationship with their dad and their family units. We watch as they are brought up a few miles from one another but lead completely different lives. There is a stark contrast between Chaurisse who walks through life with the confidence of a person who is secure in the love she receives and Dana who is a hidden daughter, for whom love is something that is not easily received.

Dana and Chaurisse have unique and strong voices and their characters are strongly drawn. I was sympathetic to Dana and almost begrudged Chaurisse, disliking her before I was even introduced to her. I was viewing her through the eyes of a daughter who has a father but not a dad and found myself resentful on Dana’s behalf. Tayari Jones is a skilled writer who drew me into feeling this way and then turns everything on its head by introducing me to Chaurisse.

Strong characterisation of not only Dana and Chaurisse but of their mothers and other characters make this an impressive richly textured novel. It explores the intricacies of family and family dynamics not only through the eyes of the children but of their mothers. We are taken back in time to their childhoods and to when they first met and fell in love with James. It shows the varied ways in which we are brought up, the pressures and the implicit expectations. It makes for an immersive and rewarding reading experience.

It isn’t any easy read though, and by that I mean it is emotional and heartbreaking in places. Tayari Jones excels at digging deep into human emotion (she did this with aplomb in An American Marriage) and in Silver Sparrow I found myself overwhelmed by the themes and issues addressed. It is an extraordinary feat of writing and Dana and Chaurisse will stay with me for some time.

I've heard quite a lot about Tayari Jones in recent years and have been looking forward to an opportunity to read one of her novels. Set in Atlanta, 'Silver Sparrow' grabbed my attention from the first page and ensured that I read through the night to finish the story.
Just why did I find the story of a family in the 1980s so fascinating? Well, the story concerns the interconnected lives of Dana and Chaurisse, two young black girls, growing up in a time of great change and the fight for rights. Although Chaurisse is largely unaware, the two girls are half-sisters as they share a father, who in fact is a bigamist and married to both of their mothers.
The story is told by first the perspective of Dana and then Chaurisse as they look back on their lives and realise the roles played by their parents.
'Silver Sparrow' is a thought provoking novel which raises the questions of love and duty. Along with the roles enforced by society and how people react.
A wonderfully written book and well worth reading. I will be following up with more of Tayari Jones's work.
I was fortunate to receive an ARC of this book via Netgalley in return for an honest review.

Thanks to NetGalley and The Publisher for this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

The story telling in this book is fantastic. A story of secrets and lies and what one will do for love. An timeless age old story but told with a freshness that keeps it exciting. Enjoyed every minute of this. Highly recommend this one.

Thank you NetGalley and OneworldPublication for this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion...

I like to think that the opening line of a story draws you into a book and some how tells you just how good a book will be.

The first half of the book gives Dana's account of her life, her mother, father, growing up and how she felt about being "the secret".

The second half gives Chaurisse's account of her own life.

The book follows the lives of two teenage girls born of different mothers but from the same father where one family is public and the other is a secret.

It is a heartbreaking tale of family, lies, secrets, societal pressures and friendship.

I was sympathetic with both girls, Dana from a young age already knew there was something different about her, she had to struggle to be "seen" by her father the way he sees his other daughter. I was sympathetic with Chaurisse because where I, as the reader already knew the secret, she was still unaware of the situation.

Silver Sparrow by Tayari Jones

“My father, James Witherspoon, is a bigamist.”

So begins Tayari Jones’ new novel. A tale of two sisters; Dana and Chaurisse, one a secret, the other a miracle.

I loved reading this book and was totally drawn into the lives of these two sisters. The story is told half from Dana’s point of view and half from Chaurisse’s. I was touched by each of the female characters and gripped by the story as James’s web of lies inevitably unravelled.

I loved Tayari’s writing and the moments of passion she captured so eloquently...

“It’s funny how three or four notes of anger can be struck at once, creating the perfect chord of fury.”

“There’s only so much that you can chalk up to coincidence. I believe in the eventuality of things. What’s done in the dark shall come to the light. What goes up comes down. What goes around comes around. There are a million of these sayings, all, in their own way, true. And isn’t that what’s supposed to set you free?”

I’m definitely going to go and read this author’s previous work.

I was immediately intrigued by the premise of Silver Sparrow because bigamy is a subject I’ve rarely read about in fiction and honestly not something I’d given much thought. The story is split between the two daughters of James Witherspoon and covers their lives and in fact, their parents lives before they were born. It is a structure that works really nicely here as the reader gets to experience some of the same events from two perspectives and it also fills in the gaps in the narratives of the two half-sisters. Telling the story in this way really hits home the fact that memory is subjective and that two people can have a totally different perception of how and why something happened and how it made them feel.

I was surprised by the fact that despite being very different people, I felt a real connection to both the girls which is testament to the author’s skill in creating relatable and affecting characters. All of the characters in Silver Sparrow are full of nuance and shades of grey. It’s very difficult to ascertain whose side you should be on because, as in life, most people can have both darkness and light within them and can often be capable of kindness and cruelty in equal measure. I loved the direct and unflinching nature of the writing in Silver Sparrow. As the novel moves forward there is a building feeling of tension and foreboding as things spiral towards what feels like an inevitable crash when the secrets between these people start to become known to everyone.

I loved reading Silver Sparrow. There is so much contained in these pages about the damage families can do to each other, the nature of womanhood and unconditional love and also how one persons decisions can have incredibly far-reaching traumatic consequences across generations. This is a insightfully written book that doesn’t take sides and demonstrates that nothing is ever simple when it comes to family and love.

Dana Lynn and Chaurisse are half sisters but only one of them knows. Their father, James has two families. One a closely kept secret. Dana Lynn knows all about her father's other family and has done all her life. We hear from both girls as they recount their experiences of growing up with a bigamist for a father.

I loved An American Marriage and was delighted to receive an e-arc of Silver Sparrow. I enjoyed it when I was reading it but struggled to pick it back up each time. Its fairly slow but enjoyable reading and I loved the writing. The characters nearly jump off the page, so descriptive and realistic are they. However overall this book was okay but I'm giving it 3* due to the fact that it was not gripping and I did struggle in parts.

Silver Sparrow, Tayari Jones's third novel, is set in Atlanta in the 1980s, told from the perspectives of two black teenage girls, Dana and Chaurisse. The girls share the same father, James, but while Dana has always known that she and her mother are James's secret second family, Chaurisse believes that she is her father's only child and that her mother is his only wife. Jones shines light on the experiences of what she calls 'silver sparrows', or children like Dana who are publicly unacknowledged by one of their parents; but she also raises the troubling question of whether Dana and her mother aren't better off, for at least they know the truth of their father's bigamy. As ever, Jones's prose is incredibly readable, but having now read all four of her novels, I found this the weakest. I admired her determined even-handedness - she avoids putting forward any simple messages about which of the girls or their mothers is worthier of our sympathy - and I did think the final quarter of the novel was especially engaging, as everything rolls out and onwards. But because the overall trajectory of the plot is pretty predictable, much of this long book seems to be treading water. I wondered what would have happened to the book if the inevitable reveal had been the midpoint of the story rather than its late crisis, as I was actually much more interested in what happened afterwards. 3.5 stars.

An American Marriage was one of the best books I read last year,so when the opportunity arose to read Tayari Jones' earlier work , Silver Sparrow, I eagerly said yes.
Set in Atlanta in the 1980's , the book opens with the rather startling declaration that "My Father, James Witherspoon, is a bigamist.", the words of his daughter Dana Lynn Yarboro, who is part of his secret second family. From a young age she knew something was different about her family's domestic arrangement, and once she was old enough to understand, she was expected to keep her parent's secret , since her father's original wife and daughter live in the same town. Dana always feels like the second class citizen, and since the first half of the book is told from her perspective, it can make for sorrowful reading at times. As the years go by, and the secret remains unrevealed, inevitably the two daughters, who are almost identical in age, cross paths. This further complicates matters for Dana Lynn , since she knows that Chaurisse is really her sister, and so she struggles with the conflict of wanting to know her better, while struggling with her resentment of her life as James' official daughter. The second half of the book is told from Chaurisse's perspective , and it is from her view point that we see the fall out when her father's dramatic secret is revealed. Not only does this add a type of balance to the book but it also reveals the vast differences in the family experiences of the two girls , with Dana Lynn very much receiving only the scraps of her father's time and affection when compared with Chaurisse. Seeing the developing friendship with Dana from Chaurisse's perspective also made her a more sympathetic character ,since the reader is in on the secret with Dana while she remains on the outside, ignorant of her true relationship to her new "friend"
The bold opening of the book sets up the dramatic tone nicely, and as I continued through the book I found myself drawn into this domestic drama with a difference. The characters are well drawn, and the narrow focus on the two families and the men who link them works very well. At first I found the change in perspective for the second half of the book rather jarring, but by the end I really appreciated it as a device to show both sides of the story in all their complexity. The use of language is wonderful, as I expected give my previous experience with this author.
I read a review copy courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher, all opinions are my own.