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 “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.