The Invention of Wings

A Novel

By: Sue Monk Kidd

Narrated by: Jenna Lamia, Adepero Oduye, Sue Monk Kidd

Length: 13 hrs and 42 mins

Publisher's summary

From the celebrated author of The Secret Life of Bees, a magnificent novel about two unforgettable American women.

Writing at the height of her narrative and imaginative gifts, Sue Monk Kidd presents a masterpiece of hope, daring, the quest for freedom, and the desire to have a voice in the world - and it is now the newest Oprah’s Book Club 2.0 selection.

Hetty “Handful” Grimke, an urban slave in early nineteenth century Charleston, yearns for life beyond the suffocating walls that enclose her within the wealthy Grimke household. The Grimke’s daughter, Sarah, has known from an early age she is meant to do something large in the world, but she is hemmed in by the limits imposed on women.

Kidd’s sweeping novel is set in motion on Sarah’s eleventh birthday, when she is given ownership of ten year old Handful, who is to be her handmaid. We follow their remarkable journeys over the next thirty five years, as both strive for a life of their own, dramatically shaping each other’s destinies and forming a complex relationship marked by guilt, defiance, estrangement and the uneasy ways of love.

As the stories build to a riveting climax, Handful will endure loss and sorrow, finding courage and a sense of self in the process. Sarah will experience crushed hopes, betrayal, unrequited love, and ostracism before leaving Charleston to find her place alongside her fearless younger sister, Angelina, as one of the early pioneers in the abolition and women’s rights movements.

Inspired by the historical figure of Sarah Grimke, Kidd goes beyond the record to flesh out the rich interior lives of all of her characters, both real and invented, including Handful’s cunning mother, Charlotte, who courts danger in her search for something better.

This exquisitely written novel is a triumph of storytelling that looks with unswerving eyes at a devastating wound in American history, through women whose struggles for liberation, empowerment, and expression will leave no reader unmoved.

©2014 Sue Monk Kidd (P)2014 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

“A remarkable novel that heightened my sense of what it meant to be a woman - slave or free... a conversation changer.” (Oprah Winfrey, O, The Oprah Magazine)

“Exhilarating...powerful...By humanizing these formidable women, The Invention of Wings furthers our essential understanding of what has happened among us as Americans - and why it still matters.” (The Washington Post)

“A textured masterpiece, quietly yet powerfully poking our consciences and our consciousness... leaves us feeling uplifted and hopeful.” (NPR)

The Invention of a Great Story & Audio Experience!

If you could sum up The Invention of Wings in three words, what would they be?

Amazing story of abolitionist and women rights.

What did you like best about this story?

The development of the main characters.

What does the narrators bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

The voices of both women, and it was perfect.

If you could take any character from The Invention of Wings out to dinner, who would it be and why?

Handful, I can't really say why without spoiling the story.

Any additional comments?

If you have the experience of listening to the this book, it will stick with you. Not only the story but the audio experience is great.

What a story!

Where does The Invention of Wings rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Number one in books I have listened to!

What did you like best about this story?

I loved this story's history and how it related to the story. I was especially happy to hear it from both characters, their life and how it all pulled together at the end.

What does the narrators bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Loved the narration and character voices they used for both parts. The stammering of Sarah Grimke was excellent!

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes, I did want to listen in one seating.

Any additional comments?

Great story based on fact. I learned something's about slavery that I didn't know, or read about in our history books.

A Sensational Audio Book

Where does The Invention of Wings rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

One of the Best

Who was your favorite character and why?

My favorite Character is Charlotte who is very courageous and her daughter Hetty(Handful)

Which character – as performed by the narrators – was your favorite?

Hetty.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes.

Any additional comments?

The readers were sensational.

Good book

Well worth it from start to finish. I did give the story four stars and not five I felt the story was good, but not out standing. Apart from that I completely enjoyed it.

A Great Audio Book

Sue Monk Kidd has written a good story. What transforms The Invention of Wings into a great story is the narration done by Jenna Lamia and Adeparo Oduyo. Although the story differs from The Help, The Invention of Wings shares the same quality of a great listen. I found myself putting off things needing to be done just so I could listen longer. Jenna Lamia, as Sarah Grimke, stuttered beautifully and Adeparo Oduyo WAS Handful Grimke. Both narrators were spot on with their southern accents and dialect.

I highly recommend The Invention of Wings. This is one of those books that is better to listen to than to actually read. It will be a credit well spent.

Read this book, don't listen to it!

What didn’t you like about the narrators’s performance?

Lamia's sniffling and blubbering ruined the book for me; I suppose she was trying to do a stutter, but I came to dread every time she opened her mouth for Sarah's dialogue.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

I was so infuriated by the voice of the narrator for Sarah that I stopped listening after the fourth chapter. I might go out and buy the hard copy of the book, since the rest of the reviewers seemed to love it. But as far as I got, it seemed to be bordering on a bodice-snatcher Midnight reader - very disappointing.

A delicate human courage

I am not just speaking of white delicate courage but of all human courage in the face of inequality and powerlessness. Slaves and womens right could not be simultaneously rallied for and certainly no “man” could support both. This was the mentality of the times. How horrifying are n my view but as I know how hard the feminist cause has suffered under the civil rights injustice one can understand that our slow monochromatic system moves. Only one human rights cause at a time please!

Nevertheless, the spirit of the slave addiction and profit rises from the privileged white plantation owners and their children loud and clear. These are times when laws supported the cruelty of human labor. The story here from Sue Monk Kidd is religious and rebellious. I highly recommend picking it up and giving yourself over to the old world for what it likely was really like for those characters real and imagined. It will be refreshing to read actual but delicate human courage.

Beautifully Written!

What did you love best about The Invention of Wings?

The characters and culture seem particularly authentic. I've read quite a few novels written both in the 19th and 20th centuries. Plus some history. The author doesn't dwell on every detail, but can leave many obvious things to the reader's imagination--therefore avoiding tedious passages.

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Invention of Wings?

The gifting of a slave to Sara. Sara seemed to have been born horrified by slavery, so the interplay of her abhorrence and the reactions of the witnesses to the gift of a slave on her eleventh birthday is particularly poignant.

Have you listened to any of the narrators’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

No. I thought all 3 readers were most excellent both in accent and in delivery of their reading.

If you could take any character from The Invention of Wings out to dinner, who would it be and why?

I'd like to take Nina out to dinner along with her husband. Nina was not as fully sketched as Sara, but intriguing in her abilities to speak well and capture an audience. I bet she'd tell some really great stories about her speaking life.

Learned a lot from this book

What made the experience of listening to The Invention of Wings the most enjoyable?

I seem to be picking books that have tremendous sadness within, and this was no exception. It was hard to continue reading at times, however it was worth it in the end. I didn't know, until the epilogue, that it was based on real people - and that would have been good to know.

A moving and very engaging story

I can't say enough about this book. It is a well written and very well performed historical novel. All education about history should come in such an engaging form.