Jones's first novel, Leaving Atlanta (2002), is a three-voiced coming-of-age story set against the backdrop of the Atlanta Child Murders of 1979–81. The three perspectives in the novel are children: LaTasha Baxter, Rodney Green, and Octavia Fuller. This novel, which was written while Jones was a graduate student at Arizona State University, is based on her experience as a child in Atlanta during that period. It won the 2003 Hurston/Wright Legacy Award for Debut Fiction.[21] Aletha Spann of 30Nineteen Productions has purchased the film option for Leaving Atlanta.[22]
The Untelling is also set in Atlanta. Described in Publishers Weekly as Jones's "deep-felt second novel", the book examines how the protagonist comes to terms with the loss of key members of her family as a child before having to redefine herself all over again in her mid-twenties.[23][24] It was awarded the Lillian Smith Book Award in 2005.[25][26]
Silver Sparrow, Jones's third novel, was published by Algonquin Books in 2011. It was an American Booksellers Association number 1 "Indie Next" pick.[27]
An American Marriage, her latest novel, was published on February 6, 2018, by Algonquin. On the same day, Oprah Winfrey announced that An American Marriage would be a pick of Oprah's Book Club.[28][29][30] An American Marriage is about an African-American couple whose lives are shaken when the husband, Roy, is arrested for a crime he did not commit.[31] Winfrey has also announced[32] that she is producing a film adaptation of the book. President Barack Obama included An American Marriage on his summer 2018 reading list.[33]
Jones also edited Atlanta Noir, an anthology of noir fiction published by Akashic Books in 2017. Her short story "Caramel" is one of the anthology's 14 stories, which are all set in Atlanta neighborhoods.[34]
