Discuss "The Vanishing Half" by Brit Bennett

Physical copies are available at the New Britain Public Library (NBPL) Checkout desk as of 9/27. Just ask for the Brown Girl Book Club book of the month!

Book Synopsis:
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.

Genre:
Fiction, Historical, Literary

Trigger warnings:
Graphic: Racism, Racial slurs, Domestic abuse

Moderate: Death of parent, Sexual assault, Dementia

Minor: Transphobia

Location
36 Queen St, Southington, CT 06489

We're trying a new location this month! Meet us at Perkatory Coffee Roasters on Queen St - NOT TO BE CONFUSED WITH PERKATORY IN FACTORY SQUARE.