The Vanishing Half

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER 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 * PEOPLE * TIME MAGAZINE* VANITY FAIR * GLAMOUR 2021 WOMEN’S PRIZE FINALIST ΓÇ£BennettΓÇÖs tone and style recalls James Baldwin and Jacqueline Woodson,but itΓÇÖs especially reminiscent of Toni MorrisonΓÇÖs 1970 debut novelThe Bluest Eye.ΓÇ¥ ΓÇöKiley ReidWall Street Journal ΓÇ£A story of absoluteuniversal timelessness ΓǪFor any erait’s an accomplishedaffecting novel. For this momentit’s piercingsubtly wending its way toward questions about who we are and who we want to beΓǪ.ΓÇ¥ ΓÇô Entertainment Weekly From The New York Times-bestselling author of The Mothersa stunning new novel about twin sistersinseparable as childrenwho ultimately choose to live in two very different worldsone black and one white. The Vignes twin sisters will always be identical. But after growing up together in a smallsouthern black community and running away at age sixteenit’s not just the shape of their daily lives that is different as adultsit’s everything: their familiestheir communitiestheir racial identities. Many years laterone sister lives with her black daughter in the same southern town she once tried to escape. The other secretly passes for whiteand her white husband knows nothing of her past. Stilleven separated by so many miles and just as many liesthe fates of the twins remain intertwined. What will happen to the next generationwhen their own daughters’ storylines intersect? Weaving together multiple strands and generations of this familyfrom the Deep South to Californiafrom the 1950s to the 1990sBrit Bennett produces a story that is at once a rivetingemotional family story and a brilliant exploration of the American history of passing. Looking well beyond issues of raceThe Vanishing Half considers the lasting influence of the past as it shapes a person’s decisionsdesiresand expectationsand 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 MothersBrit Bennett offers an engrossing page-turner about family and relationships that is immersive and provocativecompassionate and wise.