From the bestselling author of The Mothers comes our July selection - a stunning new novel as absorbing as it is prescient.
The Vanishing Half is a multigenerational family saga that follows twins, inseparable as children, who ultimately choose to live in two very different worlds: one black and one white.
Weaving together multiple strands and generations, 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
You’d be forgiven for thinking that we dropped everything and tried to find a book that spoke to the Black Lives Matter discourse but it was you, dear subscribers, who voted for it on our WellRead People Facebook Group when we couldn’t decide between it and another title. And we're so pleased that you did. The book tackles issues of racial identity, bigotry and inherited trauma and tells a story as absorbing as it is prescient. What a gift!
A few links if you want to go deeper...
- The Saturday Paper review
- The Guardian review
- The New Yorker review
- Vanity Fair interview Brit Bennett
- Vulture interview Brit Bennett
- NPR interview Brit Bennett
- The Guardian interview Brit Bennett
- Brit Bennett in conversation with Elizabeth Day
- Politics and Prose: Brit Bennett in conversation with Jazmine Hughes
- The Vanishing Half will be adapted into a series
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