Book Club Guide

An American Marriage

by Tayari Jones · 2018 · Literary Fiction

Key themes

Wrongful conviction and what it does to a marriage that cannot pause
Loyalty, love and the question of what Celestial owes Roy
The carceral system as something that punishes everyone connected to the convicted

About this book

Roy and Celestial are newly married when Roy is wrongfully convicted and imprisoned for a crime he did not commit. The novel follows both of them — and Celestial's childhood friend Andre — through the twelve years of Roy's sentence and what happens when he is released. Jones's novel, an Oprah's Book Club selection and Women's Prize winner, is about love, loyalty and what the carceral system does to relationships.

Published in 2018, An American Marriage was selected for Oprah's Book Club and won the Women's Prize for Fiction. Jones has said she wanted to write about incarceration's effect not on the incarcerated alone but on everyone connected to them.

Discussion questions

Roy is wrongfully convicted and Celestial's life continues — she builds a career, falls in love with Andre. How does Jones develop the question of what Celestial owes Roy — and does the novel pass judgment on her choices?
The novel is told through multiple first-person perspectives, including letters. How does this structure develop sympathy for characters whose choices put them in direct conflict?
Roy's experience of incarceration is largely kept offstage — the novel focuses on those outside. What does this choice achieve — and what would a more direct depiction of prison add or lose?
Andre — Celestial's childhood friend — becomes central to the novel's emotional triangle. How does Jones develop him — as rival, as genuine alternative, or as something more complicated?
An American Marriage was an Oprah's Book Club selection and won the Women's Prize for Fiction. What does it do that earns both popular and critical recognition — and what does it add to the conversation about mass incarceration's effect on families?