The Vanishing Half

A GMA Book Club Pick (A Novel)

De: Brit Bennett

Narrado por: Shayna Small

Number one New York Times best seller

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 best-selling 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 16, 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 best-selling debut The Mothers, Brit Bennett offers an engrossing pause resister about family and relationships that is immersive and provocative, compassionate, and wise.

©2020 Brit Bennett (P)2020 Penguin Audio

Wonderfully Reminiscent

I enjoyed it as much as I dreaded the story. It’s an all too familiar story of growing up Black in America. I’m a 70’s baby, however, I too crew up in an environment where shade of black had influence. I tested up in a few places recalling my own stories. Oh, I’m dark skin or a chocolate girl.

Great read. Truthful and wonderfully reminiscent.

Great performance... story not so

The story jumps from one time to another without warning and can be confusing. And the ending left me wanting to know more, disliked the ending. I liked the story but I feel it could have been put together differently to have been more enjoyable

wanted to finish reading but didn't love the story

this book kept me interested till the end, was curious about how each character would behave and react. It moved back and forth over multiple generations (which got confusing at times but was interesting to see how people grow and what they turn into).. I just didn't love the story: some of the characters' reactions seemed unrealistic (Kennedy being ok with her mom's revelation of the truth after years of lying and agreeing to not tell her dad), some characters underdeveloped (like Kennedy who was monotone in her entire storyline- both her lines + narrator made her feel like an airhead with 0-1% substance) while other characters were very multidimensional, some relationships completely unaddressed (stella and husband).

I didn't have the understanding of white passing while reading the book, and did some background reading thereafter (general and author commentary) and I now understand why author chose to make her characters who they were compared to other passing literature.. that said though, just plain reading the story without knowing the author's thoughts left me unsatisfied by how LITTLE anger there was by all the people who got hurt (Desiree, jude, kennedy).. not everyone will get angry but someone should..it's just not realistic

Great book!

This was such a great book! I love books about families. This was that! This is one of those books that you remember for a long time after you finish it. I highly recommend.

The narrator, Shayna Small did a wonderful job!

...added up to NOTHING

This story had so much potential but it added up to nothing. There was no character development. I get no understanding of why the LBGTQ was just thrown in there to take the reader Nowhere. Nothing developed with husband? Sister? Mother? Daughter? ...

Disappointing, especially the end

Some good things here and an interesting concept! It just never went anywhere....there was no conclusion of any kind, it just...ended. Literally, I was listening and the narrator started reading the credits and I was like..what?!? The denouement makes or breaks the whole experience...it provides the satisfaction abs purpose for spending your time involved in the story. It's like the author couldn't figure out how to end it so they just stopped writing.

Excellent narration and moving story

“Time was collapsing and expanding; the twins were different and the same all at once. There could have been fifty pairs of twins sitting at that dinner table, a seat for each person they had been since they’d spoken last: a battered wife and a bored one, a waitress and a professor, each woman seated next to a stranger” (Bennett 318).

An engrossing and emotional story about race, family, and what it means to craft a life for oneself. I loved the characters and the scope of the story. The writing is also beautiful. This was an immersive and compelling read and I highly recommend it. One of the best new books of the year. The narrator is masterful at crafting distinctive voices for each of the characters.

Enjoyed it— but

Good book, looking out for a follow up book. I think it could have been tied up better— even if there is a second book coming.

If you love multigenerational fiction

This story is beautifully told with twin sisters and their offspring each having very different lives. It’s a tapestry that was wonderful.

Narrator fabulous!

Narrator is one of the best actresses I’ve heard read. Story is a Great book club choice.