Somehow, the Vignes twins believed themselves capable of both,” she writes. “You can escape a town but you cannot escape blood. Poignant, without pathologising its characters, Bennett’s story delves into what it means to frame Black women as ambitious and violent in seeking to escape oppression and attain their dreams. It does it in a way that refuses and subverts the commonplace idea that solely frames colourism as opportunism, with fatal consequences. Through the story of twins and the hometown that forms them, the novel interrogates the consequences of colourism, racism and “white passing” in Black communities. This skill is central to her sophomore title, The Vanishing Half. Writing for the New York Times, Parul Seghal describes Bennett as “a remarkably assured writer who mostly sidesteps the potential for melodrama inherent in a form built upon secrecy and revelation”. Her narratives highlight the differences between these women, their multiplicity and their complex interior lives.

Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)Īuthor Brit Bennett pulls the lives of Black women from the margins to the centre of her work.

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Summary of the vanishing half