
The Vanishing Half
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Buy Now for $26.99
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Narrated by:
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Shayna Small
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By:
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Brit Bennett
About this listen
Sunday Times bestseller
Longlisted for the Women's Prize 2021
Longlisted for the Orwell Prize
Longlisted for the National Book Award
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' story lines 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.
©2020 Brit Bennett (P)2020 Hachette Audio UKListeners also picked
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Editorial reviews
Brit Bennett's stunning audiobook The Vanishing Half follows twins Desiree and Stella: identical other than passing as different races, living entirely different lives with vastly different consequences.
Bennett breaks new ground with the concept of ‘passing’, the ability to be seen as a race other than that which you identify. It asks questions not merely of the characters within, but the society which allows and requires their actions, examining how passing simultaneously exposes and strengthens the performance of race. The story of Stella and Desiree does more than merely detail their similarities and differences, extending out into a tale which spans generations, cities and cultures. It’s also a timely tale of life in the Jim Crow South in the USA and a universal questioning of self and the roles we play within society.
Half gut-wrenching exploration of race, half spellbinding story, it’s easy to see how The Vanishing Half became one of the most acclaimed books of 2020. You won't be able to hit pause on this heartfelt and thought-provoking audiobook, as narrator Shayna Small ensures you'll be absorbed in every moment, her subtle and soft performance the perfect pairing for a story so intricate.
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"A writer to watch." (Washington Post)
"The Vanishing Half is an utterly mesmerising novel. It seduces with its literary flair, surprises with its breath-taking plot twists, delights with its psychological insights, and challenges us to consider the corrupting consequences of racism on different communities and individual lives. I absolutely loved this book." (Bernardine Evaristo, winner of the Booker Prize 2019)
"Bennett allows her characters to follow their worst impulses, and she handles provocative issues with intelligence, empathy and dark humour." (New York Times )
A vivid story
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A captivating story
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Unpredictable right till tbe end
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Did I miss something?
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Performance is bad
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Loved it
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Interesting and challenging
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Beautiful
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Slow to start but very engaging once you get in
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found it hard to follow
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