The Vanishing Half - Brit Bennett

The Vanishing Half

By Brit Bennett

  • Release Date: 2020-06-02
  • Genre: Fiction & Literature
4 Score: 4 (From 7,240 Ratings)

Book Synopsis

#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


“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 

A story of absolute, universal timelessness …For any era, it's an accomplished, affecting novel. For this moment, it's piercing, subtly wending its way toward questions about who we are and who we want to be….” – Entertainment Weekly


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.

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.

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Latest Impressions

  • Read it!

    5
    By Anella Wetter
    Fascinating story and beautifully drawn characters.
  • Strong beginning; unbelievable second half

    3
    By Reader307
    I got pulled in by the beginning. The writing was strong and the story was believable. Sadly, it all unraveled for me in the second half or so.
  • Loved it

    5
    By LarkLooksLike
    Beautiful story and vividly written
  • Disappointed with the ending

    3
    By Elmofrisco
    The ending was disappointing! It Felt rushed.
  • Aimless and Wandering….

    2
    By disappointedbyagame6877
    I kept hoping the story would go somewhere but just like the characters in the book the story is aimlessly wandering through each of their separate lives. I’ll save you some time… everyone is either pretending to be someone else, wishing they were someone else or longing to be anywhere else other than where they are. And that never changes throughout the entire disjointed plot. There were many compelling story lines sprinkled throughout that kept me strung along to an abrupt and disappointing last page. “That’s it?” Yes, that was it.
  • I Need More!!!

    1
    By Flat....
    Brit’s writing is captivating — unique in its descriptions, character development, word choices, and gut-wrenching one liners. I dream of Mallard now and long to see the place she describes so well.
  • Excellent Book

    5
    By Love2Read 812
    One of my all time favorite reads.
  • Amazing

    5
    By Momos813
    This was a beautifully written story,i enjoyed every page!
  • Nice one

    4
    By puffycoqui
    I got this book for a very low price and had little expectations however, it was an interesting story
  • Tough to get through

    2
    By lthoma2
    Interesting premise but slow. Couldn’t relate to the characters