Listen free for 30 days
-
The Twelve Tribes of Hattie
- Narrated by: Adenrele Ojo, Bahni Turpin, Adam Lazarre-White
- Length: 10 hrs and 16 mins
- Categories: Literature & Fiction, Genre Fiction
People who bought this also bought...
-
Love in Colour
- Mythical Tales from Around the World, Retold
- By: Bolu Babalola
- Narrated by: Ajjaz Awad, Nneka Okoye, Bolu Babalola, and others
- Length: 8 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Join debut author Bolu Babalola as she recreates the most beautiful love stories from history and mythology and retells them with new incredible detail and vivacity. Focusing on the magical folktales of West Africa, Babalola also reimagines iconic Greek myths, ancient legends from South Asia and stories from countries that no longer exist in our world. Babalola is inspired by tales that truly show the variety and colours of love around the globe.
-
-
Fantastic!
- By Anonymous User on 09-09-20
-
The Vanishing Half
- By: Brit Bennett
- Narrated by: Shayna Small
- Length: 11 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Vignes twin sisters will always be identical. But after growing up together in a small, Southern black community and running away at age 16, it's not just the shape of their daily lives that is different as adults, it's everything: their families, their communities, their racial identities. Ten years later, one sister lives with her black daughter in the same Southern town she once tried to escape. The other secretly passes for white and her white husband knows nothing of her past.
-
-
An Important Read
- By Stephanie on 23-06-20
-
The Water Dancer
- By: Ta-Nehisi Coates
- Narrated by: Joe Morton
- Length: 14 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Brought to you by Penguin. Every slave plantation is a house of spies and intrigue. No slave walks a straight line or has a single story - deep within their hearts is betrayal and insurrection. But against whom? Hiram Walker is a man with a gift and a curse. He was born between worlds: his father a white plantation master, his mother a black slave. And, unbeknown even to himself, he was born with a special power. When he is sold to a new mistress as punishment for attempting escape, Hiram discovers her home is a secret hub of the underground railroad: a training ground for its agents.
-
-
Deliciously good
- By Miss J. Stafford on 08-10-20
-
Zikora
- A Short Story
- By: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
- Narrated by: Adepero Oduye
- Length: 1 hr and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Zikora, a DC lawyer from Nigeria, tells her equally high-powered lover that she’s pregnant, he abandons her. But it’s Zikora’s demanding, self-possessed mother, in town for the birth, who makes Zikora feel like a lonely little girl all over again. Stunned by the speed with which her ideal life fell apart, she turns to reflecting on her mother’s painful past and struggle for dignity. Preparing for motherhood, Zikora begins to see more clearly what her own mother wants for her, for her new baby, and for herself.
-
-
The first performance made for exceptional reading
- By Anonymous User on 16-12-20
-
Red at the Bone
- By: Jacqueline Woodson
- Narrated by: Bahni Turpin, Jacqueline Woodson, Peter Francis James, and others
- Length: 3 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It is the evening of 16-year-old Melody's coming of age ceremony in her grandparents' brownstone. Watched lovingly by her relatives and friends, making her entrance to the music of Prince, she wears a special custom-made dress - the very same dress that was sewn for a different wearer, Melody's mother, for a celebration that ultimately never took place. Unfurling the history of Melody's parents and grandparents - from the 1921 Tulsa massacre to post-9/11 New York....
-
-
Don’t believe the hype
- By B N Moore on 21-01-20
-
Mr Loverman
- By: Bernardine Evaristo
- Narrated by: James Goode
- Length: 9 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Barrington Jedidiah Walker is seventy-four and leads a double life. Born and bred in Antigua, he's lived in Hackney since the sixties. A flamboyant, wise-cracking local character, Barrington is a husband, father and grandfather - but he is also secretly lovers with his great childhood friend, Morris. When his marriage goes into meltdown, Barrington wants to divorce Carmel and live with Morris, but after a lifetime of fear and deception, will he manage to break away?
-
-
It will take you by surprise
- By Pj on 07-08-14
-
Love in Colour
- Mythical Tales from Around the World, Retold
- By: Bolu Babalola
- Narrated by: Ajjaz Awad, Nneka Okoye, Bolu Babalola, and others
- Length: 8 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Join debut author Bolu Babalola as she recreates the most beautiful love stories from history and mythology and retells them with new incredible detail and vivacity. Focusing on the magical folktales of West Africa, Babalola also reimagines iconic Greek myths, ancient legends from South Asia and stories from countries that no longer exist in our world. Babalola is inspired by tales that truly show the variety and colours of love around the globe.
-
-
Fantastic!
- By Anonymous User on 09-09-20
-
The Vanishing Half
- By: Brit Bennett
- Narrated by: Shayna Small
- Length: 11 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Vignes twin sisters will always be identical. But after growing up together in a small, Southern black community and running away at age 16, it's not just the shape of their daily lives that is different as adults, it's everything: their families, their communities, their racial identities. Ten years later, one sister lives with her black daughter in the same Southern town she once tried to escape. The other secretly passes for white and her white husband knows nothing of her past.
-
-
An Important Read
- By Stephanie on 23-06-20
-
The Water Dancer
- By: Ta-Nehisi Coates
- Narrated by: Joe Morton
- Length: 14 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Brought to you by Penguin. Every slave plantation is a house of spies and intrigue. No slave walks a straight line or has a single story - deep within their hearts is betrayal and insurrection. But against whom? Hiram Walker is a man with a gift and a curse. He was born between worlds: his father a white plantation master, his mother a black slave. And, unbeknown even to himself, he was born with a special power. When he is sold to a new mistress as punishment for attempting escape, Hiram discovers her home is a secret hub of the underground railroad: a training ground for its agents.
-
-
Deliciously good
- By Miss J. Stafford on 08-10-20
-
Zikora
- A Short Story
- By: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
- Narrated by: Adepero Oduye
- Length: 1 hr and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Zikora, a DC lawyer from Nigeria, tells her equally high-powered lover that she’s pregnant, he abandons her. But it’s Zikora’s demanding, self-possessed mother, in town for the birth, who makes Zikora feel like a lonely little girl all over again. Stunned by the speed with which her ideal life fell apart, she turns to reflecting on her mother’s painful past and struggle for dignity. Preparing for motherhood, Zikora begins to see more clearly what her own mother wants for her, for her new baby, and for herself.
-
-
The first performance made for exceptional reading
- By Anonymous User on 16-12-20
-
Red at the Bone
- By: Jacqueline Woodson
- Narrated by: Bahni Turpin, Jacqueline Woodson, Peter Francis James, and others
- Length: 3 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It is the evening of 16-year-old Melody's coming of age ceremony in her grandparents' brownstone. Watched lovingly by her relatives and friends, making her entrance to the music of Prince, she wears a special custom-made dress - the very same dress that was sewn for a different wearer, Melody's mother, for a celebration that ultimately never took place. Unfurling the history of Melody's parents and grandparents - from the 1921 Tulsa massacre to post-9/11 New York....
-
-
Don’t believe the hype
- By B N Moore on 21-01-20
-
Mr Loverman
- By: Bernardine Evaristo
- Narrated by: James Goode
- Length: 9 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Barrington Jedidiah Walker is seventy-four and leads a double life. Born and bred in Antigua, he's lived in Hackney since the sixties. A flamboyant, wise-cracking local character, Barrington is a husband, father and grandfather - but he is also secretly lovers with his great childhood friend, Morris. When his marriage goes into meltdown, Barrington wants to divorce Carmel and live with Morris, but after a lifetime of fear and deception, will he manage to break away?
-
-
It will take you by surprise
- By Pj on 07-08-14
-
Behold the Dreamers
- By: Imbolo Mbue
- Narrated by: Prentice Onayem
- Length: 12 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A powerful and timely story of marriage, class, race and the pursuit of the American Dream. Behold the Dreamers is a dazzling debut novel about life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness - and of what we're prepared to sacrifice to hold on to each of them. 'We all do what we gotta do to become American, Abi.' New York, 2007: a city of dreamers and strivers, where the newly arrived and the long established jostle alike for a place on the ladder of success.
-
-
The Dreamers see the American Dream & Nightmare
- By Lin Becker on 21-09-18
-
American Dirt
- By: Jeanine Cummins
- Narrated by: Yareli Arizmendi
- Length: 16 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Yesterday, Lydia had a bookshop. Yesterday, Lydia was married to a journalist. Yesterday, she was with everyone she loved most in the world. Today, her eight-year-old son Luca is all she has left. For him, she will carry a machete strapped to her leg. For him, she will leap onto the roof of a high speed train. For him, she will find the strength to keep running.
-
-
One of the best audio books I’ve listened to.
- By Mrs on 24-01-20
-
The Girl with the Louding Voice
- By: Abi Daré
- Narrated by: Adjoa Andoh
- Length: 12 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
14-year-old Adunni has a dream: to be educated. But her father needs her bride-price, so sells his daughter to an older man, who demands she give him the fine boy-children his first two wives have failed to produce. When things go tragically wrong, Adunni flees to Lagos. It's what she has always wanted, to leave Ikati and see the world, and though her heart is full of sorrow for her lost family and the shame she has left behind, still Adunni will not be quiet and do as she's told.
-
-
Uplifting Story
- By O. on 22-03-20
-
The Color Purple
- By: Alice Walker
- Narrated by: Samira Wiley
- Length: 8 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Celie has grown up poor in rural Georgia, despised by the society around her and abused by her own family. She strives to protect her sister, Nettie, from a similar fate, and while Nettie escapes to a new life as a missionary in Africa, Celie is left behind without her best friend and confidante, married off to an older suitor, and sentenced to a life alone with a harsh and brutal husband. In an attempt to transcend a life that often seems too much to bear, Celie begins writing letters directly to God.
-
-
wonderful and inspirational.
- By Bev on 25-05-20
-
This Lovely City
- By: Louise Hare
- Narrated by: Theo Solomon, Karise Yansen
- Length: 10 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With the Blitz over and London reeling from war, jazz musician Lawrie Matthews has answered England’s call for help. Fresh off the Empire Windrush, he’s taken a tiny room in south London lodgings, and has fallen in love with the girl next door. Touring Soho’s music halls by night, pacing the streets as a postman by day, Lawrie has poured his heart into his new home - and it’s alive with possibility. Until, one morning, he makes a terrible discovery.
-
-
A MUST listen!
- By JaneyB on 28-02-20
-
Olive Kitteridge
- Fiction
- By: Elizabeth Strout
- Narrated by: Kimberly Farr
- Length: 12 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At times stern, at other times patient, at times perceptive, at other times in sad denial, Olive Kitteridge, a retired schoolteacher, deplores the changes in her little town of Crosby, Maine, and in the world at large, but she doesn’t always recognize the changes in those around her: a lounge musician haunted by a past romance; a former student who has lost the will to live; Olive’s own adult child, who feels tyrannized by her irrational sensitivities; and her husband, Henry, who finds his loyalty to his marriage both a blessing and a curse.
-
-
Olive Kitteridge is someone we already know
- By katemoloney on 21-10-19
-
The Gifts of Imperfection
- By: Brené Brown
- Narrated by: Brené Brown
- Length: 4 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What transforms this audiobook from written word to effective daily practices are the 10 guideposts to wholehearted living. The guideposts not only help us understand the practices that will allow us to change our lives and families, they also walk us through the unattainable and sabotaging expectations that get in the way.
-
-
Love hearing Brené read it this time!
- By A Vedder on 12-09-20
-
The Autobiography of Malcolm X
- As Told to Alex Haley
- By: Malcolm X, Alex Haley
- Narrated by: Laurence Fishburne
- Length: 16 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Experience a bold take on this classic autobiography as it’s performed by Oscar-nominated Laurence Fishburne. In this searing classic autobiography, originally published in 1965, Malcolm X, the Muslim leader, firebrand, and Black empowerment activist, tells the extraordinary story of his life and the growth of the Human Rights movement. His fascinating perspective on the lies and limitations of the American dream and the inherent racism in a society that denies its non-White citizens the opportunity to dream, gives extraordinary insight into the most urgent issues of our own time.
-
-
Fantastic.
- By Amazon Customer on 21-09-20
-
A Promised Land
- By: Barack Obama
- Narrated by: Barack Obama
- Length: 29 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the stirring, highly anticipated first volume of his presidential memoirs, Barack Obama tells the story of his improbable odyssey from young man searching for his identity to leader of the free world, describing in strikingly personal detail both his political education and the landmark moments of the first term of his historic presidency - a time of dramatic transformation and turmoil.
-
-
Dropping a classic
- By jesse on 17-11-20
-
An American Marriage (Oprah’s Book Club)
- A Novel
- By: Tayari Jones
- Narrated by: Sean Crisden, Eisa Davis
- Length: 8 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Newlyweds Celestial and Roy are the embodiment of both the American Dream and the New South. He is a young executive, and she is an artist on the brink of an exciting career. But as they settle into the routine of their life together, they are ripped apart by circumstances neither could have imagined. Roy is arrested and sentenced to 12 years for a crime Celestial knows he didn't commit. Though fiercely independent, Celestial finds herself bereft and unmoored, taking comfort in Andre, her childhood friend, and best man at their wedding.
-
-
Great performances...
- By Snowbound on 10-08-18
-
The Dutch House
- By: Ann Patchett
- Narrated by: Tom Hanks
- Length: 9 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A masterpiece from the Orange Prize-winning, New York Times number one best-selling author of Commonwealth and Bel Canto: a story of love, family, sacrifice and the power of place. Lose yourself in the story of a lifetime – the unforgettable Sunday Times best seller. A story of two siblings, their childhood home and a past that they can’t let go. Like swallows, like salmon, we were the helpless captives of our migratory patterns.
-
-
Underwhelming
- By Ted on 30-01-20
-
My Name Is Why
- By: Lemn Sissay
- Narrated by: Lemn Sissay, Richard Burnip, Zoe Mills
- Length: 5 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At the age of 17, after a childhood in an fostered family followed by six years in care homes, Norman Greenwood was given his birth certificate. He learned that his real name was not Norman. It was Lemn Sissay. He was British and Ethiopian. And he learned that his mother had been pleading for his safe return to her since his birth. Here Sissay recounts his life story. It is a story of neglect and determination. Misfortune and hope. Cruelty and triumph.
-
-
Painful reading
- By candide on 01-09-19
Summary
“The opening pages of Ayana's debut took my breath away. I can't remember when I read anything that moved me quite this way, besides the work of Toni Morrison.”Oprah Winfrey.
Fifteen years old and blazing with the hope of a better life, Hattie Shepherd fled the horror of the American South on a dawn train bound for Philadelphia. Hattie’s is a tale of strength, of resilience and heartbreak that spans six decades. Her American dream is shattered time and again: a husband who lies and cheats and nine children raised in a cramped little house that was only ever supposed to be temporary. She keeps the children alive with sheer will and not an ounce of the affection they crave. She knows they don’t think her a kind woman — but how could they understand that all the love she had was used up in feeding them and clothing them. How do you prepare your children for a world you know is cruel?
The lives of this unforgettable family form a searing portrait of 20th century America. From the revivalist tents of Alabama to Vietnam, to the black middle-class enclave in the heart of the city, to a filthy bar in the ghetto, The Twelve Tribes of Hattie is an extraordinary, distinctive novel about the guilt, sacrifice, responsibility and heartbreak that are an intrinsic part of ferocious love.
Critic reviews
What listeners say about The Twelve Tribes of Hattie
Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
- Bibliophile
- 24-01-13
Collection of Short Stories Around One Family
I just finished listening to "The Twelve Tribes of Hattie" by Ayana Mathis and the book was mostly different from what I had expected.
Expected: A novel that revolves around the family founded by Hattie and her husband.
Got: A collection of loosely connected short stories around the life of Hattie and her children, always showing a short period of time during a period of 60 years.
Maybe I should say first that I hate short stories. So still rating this audio book with four out of five stars comes as a surprise to me, some of the credit is due to Adenrele Ojo, Bahni Turpin and Adam Lazarre-White outstanding performance as readers.
By picking different points of time between the 1920s and 1980s, Ayana Mathis shows some changes in American society, some politcal events and developments, as well as how Hattie's life is going on.
The book starts with Hattie as a teenaged mother, being worried about her sick twin babies who eventually die. Hattie and her husband have many children after the twins but their life and their children's lifes remain bleak, sometimes more sometimes less so. Sometimes caused by external factors, sometimes by the characters themselves.
If Hattie's children had played more of role in all "chapters", instead of only appearing in their dedicated episode, I would have enjoyed the book much more - this is why I am taking off one star.
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- zomodo
- 17-07-13
Wished it was longer
Would you try another book written by Ayana Mathis or narrated by the narrators?
Yes,
Would you be willing to try another book from Ayana Mathis? Why or why not?
Yes, but I was a little disappointed in the story, each chapter was so different as it concentrated on each of Hattie's offspring. But it was impossible to get into the story as it was only a relatively short window in each of their lives. I suppose you learned about Hattie through her children but I would have actually preferred to learn a bit more about each child!
A couple of the chapters were slightly boring and unfortunately took a few rewinds before they 'caught'. Others I could have listened to for hours if they had been a whole novel.
Despite this, The book was well written, so I would try this author again.
What does the narrators bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you had only read the book?
The narrators were brilliant, I could clearly identify who was who, I could picture the characters all the more better
Did The Twelve Tribes of Hattie inspire you to do anything?
Nope, other than to search audible for another book to top me up before the next credit!
Any additional comments?
It's nice to have a book, going across decades withAfrican Americans folk as the subject. This helps open your mind on an area less publicised and for this I would recommend it.