Silver Sparrow Summary
Jones, Tayari

Silver Sparrow Overview

Tayari Jones' Silver Sparrow tells the story of Dana and Chaurisse, the two daughters of a bigamist man in Atlanta, James Witherspoon. While Dana and her mother, Gwendolyn, know that they are James' secret family, and see him one time a week, Chaurisse and her mother, Laverne are completely unaware of the other family. In the 1980's, when Dana and Chaurisse are in high school, James' secret begins to dissolve as the two girls coincidentally bump into one another. In addition to the drama surrounding the family secrecy, the novel explores many other themes about how women are typically relegated in a patriarchal society.