An American Marriage: Redefining The American Love Story

During a fellowship to Harvard, writer Tayari Jones spent months and months studying the intersection of race and criminal justice. She learned a lot about the American criminal justice system. She knew all the grim statistics. But she was still searching for the inspiration for a novel she’d hope to write: one that involved an individual’s encounter with the system, and the subsequent ripples that touch that person’s community.

Then, while she was in Atlanta visiting her mother, she found what she needed during a routine trip to the shopping mall.

“I overheard a couple arguing,” she remembers. “The woman was beautifully dressed, cashmere coat, the whole nine.”