Updated Feb. 24, 2026, 2:13 p.m. ET
Oprah Winfrey’s first book club pick of 2026 is finally here.
Oprah’s Book Club chose “Kin” by Tayari Jones as its February book, a literary historical novel that follows two young motherless girls growing up in the Jim Crow-era South.
This is the second time Winfrey has selected a book by Jones. Winfrey called her writing a gift that “can touch us soul to soul” when she chose her novel “An American Marriage” in 2018. “An American Marriage” was also named on former President Barack Obama’s summer and year-end reading list and won the Women’s Prize for Fiction.
In “Kin,” Jones returns with another Southern novel brimming with familial bonds, betrayals, reflection and uncharted paths.
“Tayari’s storytelling washed over me like a trip back home, like a visit with my own ‘kin’ I hadn’t seen in a long while,” Winfrey said in a statement. “It is masterful and reminds us of the true bonds we share with family, whether biological or chosen.”
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Oprah’s Book Club pick for February: ‘Kin’ by Tayari Jones
“Kin” is a tribute to female friendship and sisterhood. “Kin” follows two motherless girls and neighbors, Vernice (or “Niecy”) and Annie, so close they often refer to each other as “cradle friends.” Both grow into adulthood differently – Annie sets off toward Tennessee to find her long-lost mother and Niecy, at Spelman College, must choose between two conflicting paths of love and expectations. Despite years apart, through strife and success, they remain tethered to each other.
“To be selected for Oprah’s Book Club is a writer’s dream, and to be chosen twice is a stunning gift,” Jones said in a statement. “Oprah knows that our stories will heal us. For decades she has elevated the voices of the world − book by book. Like the old folks say, I’m honored to be one in that number.”
This is Jones’ fifth novel, previously having written “Silver Sparrow,” “The Untelling,” “Leaving Atlanta” and “An American Marriage.”
Clare Mulroy is USA TODAY’s Books Reporter, where she covers buzzy releases, chats with authors and dives into the culture of reading. Find her on Instagram, subscribe to our weekly Books newsletter or tell her what you’re reading at cmulroy@usatoday.com.
