Description
Title: The Vanishing Half
Author: Brit Bennett
Genre: Literary Fiction / Historical Fiction
Published: 2020
Summary:
This intergenerational family saga on themes of identity, race, and belonging is called The Vanishing Half. It is set around Desiree and Stella Vignes, twin sisters who grew up in the 1950s in a very small, racially segregated town called Mallard, Louisiana, where very light skin was valued among the Black community. They ran away at sixteen in search of different lives.
They lead utterly dissimilar lives in adulthood: Desiree returns to Mallard with her dark-skinned daughter after escaping an abusive marriage, whereas Stella “passes” as white, living in a secret existence with her white husband and daughter, estranged from her Blackness. The story is interwoven by alternating between their lives, the lives of their daughters, and how their choices impact generations to come.
This novel questions the process through which race and identity shape their lives, choices, and relationships, making it a question about the lengths people will go to create the lives they want and what cost comes with erasing one’s past.
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