From the celebrated author of The Secret Life of Bees and the forthcoming novel The Book of Longings, a 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.Hetty “Handful” Grimke, an urban slave in early nineteenth century … 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.
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I loved this book!
This is, without a doubt, one of the best books I’ve ever read. From the very first page, I was totally drawn into the characters’ lives. The story is based on fact which makes it even more wonderful, although also disturbing. Slaves with no rights, women with no rights, men as the masters with all the rights…
compelling hard to put down
Thought provoking and even though it took place just prior to the Civil War, it’s still relevant today
This is an excellent read. Great writing by a really informative author.
Excellent Read
Exceptional book! Takes you right into the period of history where expectations about women and slaves were rigidly defined.
One of my favorite books. This is a wonderful book and everyone should read it
Everyone should know this history
I have tried to read this book 2 times. I love Sue Monk Kidd, but this story bored me.
Even though I write romance/thrillers does not mean I have to read only one genre. I love immersing myself in other types of books. I am a voracious reader and take pleasure from all forms of the written word. Sue Monk’s The Invention of Wings was a spellbinding pleasure. It is a historical novel based on the life of Sarah Grimke a woman born into a slaveholding family who became a leading abolitionist and suffragette before the Civil War.
What makes the book extraordinary is you meet Sarah and one of her family’s slaves Hetty (nicknamed Handful) at the tender age of twelve. The girls are the same age. However, their prospects and realities could not be more opposite. Somehow this slave and master manage to strike a friendship that will last for the length of their lives. They will learn from each other and share a bond that was unthinkable in the master-slave world of the South.
Sarah will struggle to realize her desire to be independent and pursue a career, which was unacceptable for a woman. She will strive to achieve her dream of emancipation and equality for her family’s slaves and end up fighting for the freedom of all slaves. It will make her a pariah, isolate her from her family, and she will end up being banished from Charleston. She will fall in love and forsake love to pursue her calling as a voice of freedom.
Beautifully interwoven into this tale is the voice of Hetty whose grandmother and mother bear the fresh scars of being taken from their village in Africa and sold into slavery. Ms. Monk gives voice to their suffering and gives voice to their oppression, and most beautifully gives voice to their desire to fly free on “the wings of invention.” This novel is poignant and heart-wrenching in its presentation of the tortures and oppression that was slavery.
It was a way of life that was wrong. However, it was a way of life that existed throughout man’s history. There is not a culture, nation, or religion that hasn’t oppressed others. All we can do is understand and forgive going forward. Knowing and understanding history is the only prevention against repeating history. If voices are silenced, the lesson cannot be learned.
Read this book and learn your history. Don’t condemn those that perpetrated it, for they lived in a different world, in a different time. That world would end in the slaughter of a generation of young men. Understand the sacrifices that were made to sway support for the cause that Lincoln would eventually take up. It was the determination of Sarah Grimke, an all but forgotten Southern white woman, and others like her that brought this tragic period in our history to an end.
I highly recommend the audible version. Narrators were truly amazing, brought the story to life and what a beautiful story it is.
Excellent
This book addressed the horrors of slavery, as well as the need for women’s rights as seen through he main characters. The book was well research and based on real characters. At times it was hard to read, however, it brought the reality of that time in our history to life. I highly recommend this book.
This book was an entertaining walk through a troubling time period. The characters were well developed and I was rooting for them even when they were fighting in a world turned against them.
The best book I ‘ve read in a long time.
This redeemed Sue Monk Kidd to me. Well written.
I loved this book!
Well written, captivating, and modest insights into the slave world.
I enjoy all of Sue Monks books, this one was no exception.