October 26 (Monday) at 5:00 p.m. PST
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD
A GOOD MORNING AMERICA and L.A. Times Book Club Pick
Named a BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR by Entertainment Weekly, Vulture, USA Today, G.Q., Vanity Fair, Harper’s Bazaar, Glamour, and Bustle
“[Bennett’s] second [book], The Vanishing Half, more than lives up to her early promise … more expansive yet also deeper, a multi-generational family saga that tackles prickly issues of racial identity and bigotry and conveys the corrosive effects of secrets and dissembling. It’s also a great read that will transport you out of your current circumstances, whatever they are… Like The Mothers, this novel keeps you turning pages not just to find out what happens.” —NPR
“Bennett’s gorgeously written second novel, an ambitious meditation on race and identity, considers the divergent fates of twin sisters, born in the Jim Crow South, after one decides to pass for white. Bennett balances the literary demands of dynamic characterization with the historical and social realities of her subject.” —The New York Times
The Vanishing Half is a “fierce examination of contemporary passing and the price so many pay for a new identity.” —The Washington Post
“A page-turner.” —O, THE OPRAH MAGAZINE
“Hypnotic . . . Hooks you from the very beginning and never lets you go.” —Essence
“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 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.
Listen to a Sample
A Conversation with William “BJ” Robinson, host of KPBS Arts, and Tough Talk.
William BJ Robinson (he, him, his) is a self-described workaholic music man. While maintaining a private voice studio, BJ is the host of KPBS Arts, a weekly TV program on KPBS, and Tough Talk, a bi-weekly virtual discussion series that focuses around race relations.
He has worked in artistic direction, education, and performance with: Southwestern College, San Diego Junior Theatre, Lamb’s Players Theatre, The Old Globe Theatre, Blindspot Collective, The Eastern, SeaWorld San Diego, J Company Youth Theatre, San Diego Gay Men’s Chorus, Westminster Theatre, North Park Vaudeville & Candy Shoppe, Coronado Playhouse, Lamplighter’s Theatre, OB Playhouse, and San Diego Repertory.