ABOUT
THE BOOK

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 twelve 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. As Roy’s time in prison passes, she is unable to hold on to the love that has been her centre. After five years, Roy’s conviction is suddenly overturned, and he returns to Atlanta ready to resume their life together.

Dramatised reading of An American Marriage by Tayari Jones, performed by Kwaku Fortune. Produced by Bazar Productions.

In this special podcast series, Caelainn Hogan and Jessica Traynor explore An American Marriage, and speak to author Tayari Jones.

Comments from the Judging Panel

“Ours was a love story, the kind that’s not supposed to happen to black girls anymore”, says the character of Celestial at one point, in this novel about an African-American couple – Celestial and Roy – whose lives unravel when Roy is jailed for a crime he did not commit.   Told alternately through the voices of Roy, Celestial, and Roy’s best friend, Andre, on whom Celestial increasingly relies, this is not just a novel of black lives in America today, it is a novel of three people who are parts of one another’s lives even as they move in three different directions.