The Vanishing Half: A GMA Book Club Pick (A Novel) [B1555]

2020 HCDJ in excellent condition. ONE OF BARACK OBAMA'S FAVORITE BOOKS OF THE YEAR. Named a BEST BOOK OF 2020 by the New York Times, The Washington Post, NPR. "Bennett's tone and style recalls James Baldwin and Jacqueline Woodson, but it's especially reminiscent of Toni Morrison's 1970 debut novel, The Bluest Eye." -Kiley Reid, Wall Street Journal. From 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. As with her New York Times-bestselling debut The Mothers, Brit Bennett offers an engrossing page-turner about family and relationships that is immersive and provocative, compassionate and wise.

From recent MIXED Amazon/GoodReads reviews: "Beautiful, powerful, stuck with me."; "So good - about two sisters separated and living different lives in different cultures"; "This would have been a better book if the author would have stuck to the main theme. Adding things to check political boxes takes away from the central discussion."; "Loved everything about this book except the ending. I loved the complexities of the sisters' relationship and how their daughters interacted with each other. Also loved the stark difference in the mother-daughter relationship between both twins."; "Sooooo GOOD from start to finish! Pacing is excellent. Story is excellent. Characters are excellent. Covered some difficult topics in a respectful way; and also without being too stressful or graphic for me to read it."