The Vanishing Half
Brit Bennett, 2020
Twin sisters in a Louisiana town built on light skin: one vanishes into a white life, one comes home with a daughter the colour of night.
Brit Bennett
Bennett grew up in Oceanside, California, and wrote much of the novel in the mornings before teaching, after a decade of wondering what would make a sister leave her twin behind.
Feels like identity, family and curiosity.
The version of you a town invents the moment you leave.
She was a selfish girl. If they remembered anything about Desiree, it was that and most didn’t recall much more. The twins had been gone fourteen years, nearly as long as anyone had ever known them. Vanished from bed after the Founder’s Day dance, while their mother slept right down the hall. One morning, the twins crowded in front of their bathroom mirror, four identical girls fussing with their hair. The next, the bed was empty, the covers pulled back like any other day, taut when Stella made it, crumpled when Desiree did. The town spent all morning searching for them, calling their names through the woods, wondering stupidly if they had been taken. Their disappearance seemed as sudden as the rapture, all of Mallard the sinners left behind. Books by Brit Bennett
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