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The invention of wings
A sweeping, deeply interior historical journey that traces the intertwined destinies of two women fighting for freedom against the suffocating constraints of the 19th-century South.
What it feels like
Reading this sweeping historical novel feels like watching a slow, powerful awakening. The narrative unfolds at a steady, deliberate pace, spanning decades to fully capture the suffocating weight of 19th-century societal constraints and the profound sorrow of enslavement. Yet, the overarching mood is one of stirring defiance. The prose is exquisitely crafted, diving deep into the rich interior lives of its characters to explore a complex, uneasy bond marked by guilt, estrangement, and a shared yearning for autonomy. It is a deeply empathetic and earnest reading experience that traces a harrowing but ultimately courageous emotional arc. This book will deeply satisfy readers who devour character-driven literary fiction centered on women's rights, abolition, and the hard-won fight for self-determination.
- Mood
- oppressive
- sorrowful
- hopeful
- stirring
- Tone
- earnest
- empathetic
- reflective
- defiant
- Pace
- steady
- Themes
- struggle for autonomy · complex female bonds · systemic oppression · finding one's voice · intersection of abolition and feminism
- The writing
- Exquisitely written and deeply empathetic, focusing on rich interiority and sweeping historical detail.
- The arc
- Moves from suffocating confinement and profound sorrow to hard-won courage, defiance, and a powerful sense of self-determination.
- Who it's for
- Readers who appreciate sweeping, character-driven historical fiction that explores complex women's relationships and the fight against systemic injustice.
Content notes
- slavery
- loss and grief
- betrayal
- systemic oppression
About the book
Hetty "Handful" Grimke, an urban slave in early-19th-century Charleston, yearns for life beyond the suffocating walls that enclose her within the wealthy Grimke household. The Grimkes' daughter Sarah, possessed of a ravenous intellect and mutinous ideas, 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. Sue Monk Kidd's sweeping new novel is set in motion on Sarah's 11th birthday in 1803, when she is given ownership of a 10-year-old Handful, who is to be her handmaid. The Invention of Wings follows their remarkable journeys over the next 35 years as both strive for lives 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 in part by the historic figure of Sarah Grimke, Kidd goes beyond the record to flesh out the rich interior lives of all her characters, both real and invented, including Handful's cunning mother, Charlotte, who courts danger in her search for something better, and Charlotte's lover, Denmark Vesey, a charismatic free black man who is planning insurrection. This exquisitely written novel is a triumph of storytelling that looks with unswerving eyes at one of the most devastating wounds in American history, through women whose struggles for liberation, empowerment, and expression will leave no reader unmoved. - Jacket flap.
Description from Open Library.
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