Atlanta-based author Tayari Jones tells the saga of a young black man falsely accused and wrongly convicted of rape in her novel, “An American Marriage.” The book won last year’s Women’s Prize for Fiction, was chosen for Oprah’s Book Club, and it also won the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work.
With ongoing protests around the world over police brutality, Jones joined “Morning Edition” host Lisa Rayam to put her book into context and discuss the human cost of injustice.
“I think my book is very clear that the way racism in the criminal justice system is ruining people’s lives,” Jones said.
Like the two college students–from Spelman College and Morehouse College–who were pulled from their vehicle by Atlanta police officers during George Floyd protests, the middle-class couple in Jones’ book also graduated from those HBCUs. Yet, the book’s main characters are still black in America, and their marriage is torn apart by a false police report.
“The people in my book are concentrating on their marriage; they have little problems,” Jones said.
