From the New York Times-bestselling author of The Mothers,
a stunning new novel about twin sisters, inseparable as children, who
ultimately choose to live in two very different worlds, one black and
one white.
The Vignes twin sisters will always be identical. But
after growing up together in a small, southern black community and
running away at age sixteen, it's not just the shape of their daily
lives that is different as adults, it's everything: their families,
their communities, their racial identities. Many years later, one sister
lives with her black daughter in the same southern town she once tried
to escape. The other secretly passes for white, and her white husband
knows nothing of her past. Still, even separated by so many miles and
just as many lies, the fates of the twins remain intertwined. What will
happen to the next generation, when their own daughters' storylines
intersect?
Weaving together multiple strands and generations of this family, from
the Deep South to California, from the 1950s to the 1990s, Brit Bennett
produces a story that is at once a riveting, emotional family story and a
brilliant exploration of the American history of passing. Looking well
beyond issues of race, The Vanishing Half considers the lasting
influence of the past as it shapes a person's decisions, desires, and
expectations, and explores some of the multiple reasons and realms in
which people sometimes feel pulled to live as something other than their
origins.
343 pages (June 2020)
Book Page at BookBrowse.
To find a discussion guide for this book in the NoveList Plus database, go to the Library's website, click on Novelist under "We Recommend" → "Book Services". Click on "Book Discussion Guides" in the right sidebar on NoveList's home page. Then, either enter the title in the Search box or search for the title alphabetically. (You will need your Salt Lake County Library card number to access this resource outside a county library.)
Brit Bennett on Good Morning America :
This title is available for download as an eBook and as an eAudioBook. Learn more about downloadables from the library here.
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