The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett

 

From Goodreads

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. Ten 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.

My thoughts

This book had been on my local Library TBR pile for some time.  I gave this a 4 stars or 8/10.

I actually started this back in October 2020 and read 17 pages at the time.  Life got in the way and it was put to one side.  I made a start on it again in May 2021 and completed it this time.

This was a story spanning the decades and telling the story of identical twin girls born into a multi race family.  Set in America it deals with the issues of racism during the mid to late 20th Century, relationships and family.  As the twin girls grow into young women their lives take different directions and they seem to lead completely different lives for various reasons as they both make decisions that will have long lasting consequences.  

I enjoyed this story and found it a well written and thought provoking look into family life and the issues surrounding the colour of our skin and how it may affect what happens to us throughout our life.  I feel that this would make a great reading group read as there is so much that can be discussed.