What are your go-to book recommendations?

The book I’ve probably recommended the most is The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy. The books I’ve recommended most recently include Days Without End by Sebastian Barry, The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead, The Long Song by Andrea Levy, Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid, Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens, and The Dutch House by Ann Patchett.

What five celebrities—alive or dead—would make up your ideal dinner party and why?

I couldn’t possibly resist a chance to invite past authors who blazed a trail. The list is long, but if it has to be five, then perhaps Toni Morrison, Zora Neale Hurston, Maya Angelou, Alice Walker, and Octavia Butler.

Praise for

A More Perfect Union

“Amidst hunger, deprivation and the whimsical cruelties of slavery, two people dare to steal happiness. This graceful, assured debut novel creates an unusual slave narrative that starts in potato-famine Ireland and deftly weaves a touching American love story. The deceptively easy prose bristles with danger and possibility and I loved the at once thrilling and gentle pace of the novel. Tammye Huf is a wonderful storyteller.”

—Marina Salandy-Brown

“A riveting love story across the challenges of race and poverty… Huf’s delicate blend of passion and compassion is compelling, impressive and never sentimental.”

—Andrea Stuart

“A gripping and moving tale of romance. Tammye Huf shows meticulous care for details of setting and nuances of character and motive that make remarkable events deeply plausible.”

—Barbara Lalla

“A resonant and topical love story, intricately plotted and compellingly told, and a visceral exploration of what it means to be deprived of one’s freedom. The stories of Henry, an Irish immigrant escaping the Great Famine, and Sarah, who is sold into slavery on a southern plantation, poignantly illustrate the dehumanizing experience of being deprived of choice, in small ways as well as large, on a daily basis.”

—Umi Sinha