Born and raised in Southern California, Brit Bennett graduated from Stanford University and later earned her MFA in fiction at the University of Michigan. Her debut novel, The Mothers, was a New York Times bestseller and a finalist for both the NBCC John Leonard First Novel Prize and the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize for Debut Fiction. Her second novel, The Vanishing Half, was an instant #1 New York Times bestseller, longlisted for the National Book Award, a finalist for the Women’s Prize, and named one of the ten best books of the year by The New York Times. Bennet has been named a National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 honoree, a NAACP Image Award Finalist, and one of Time’s Next 100 Influential People. Her essays have been featured in The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, The Paris Review, and Jezebel.
Named a BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR by The New York Times, The Washington
Post, Time, NPR, Entertainment Weekly, Vulture, USA Today, GQ,
Vanity Fair, Harper's Bazaar, Glamour, and Bustle
Praise for The Vanishing Half:
“[Bennett’s] second [book], The Vanishing Half, more than lives up
to her early promise. . . more expansive yet also deeper, a
multi-generational family saga that tackles prickly issues of
racial identity and bigotry and conveys the corrosive effects of
secrets and dissembling. It's also a great read that will transport
you out of your current circumstances, whatever they are. . . Like
The Mothers, this novel keeps you turning pages not just to find
out what happens.” —NPR
“Bennett’s gorgeously written second novel, an ambitious meditation
on race and identity, considers the divergent fates of twin
sisters, born in the Jim Crow South, after one decides to pass for
white. Bennett balances the literary demands of dynamic
characterization with the historical and social realities of her
subject matter.”—The New York Times
“An eloquent new entry to literature on that most vital of
subjects, identity, The Vanishing Half is the novel of
the year.”—TIME
“A story of absolute, universal timelessness — a story of what it
means to simply be, to grow up and define oneself and reinvent, to
negotiate a place in the world. It's also a deeply American story,
rigorously engaged with a country's racist past and present, while
interrogative of its foundational values, like choice and legacy.
For any era, it's an accomplished, affecting novel. For this
moment, it's piercing, subtly wending its way toward questions
about who we are and who we want to be….” —Entertainment
Weekly
“Beautifully written, thought-provoking and immersive… Issues
of privilege, inter-generational trauma, the randomness and
unfairness of it all, are teased apart in all their complexity,
within a story that also touches on universal themes of love,
identity and belonging… The Vanishing Half, with its clever
premise and strongly developed characters, is unputdownable and
highly recommended.” —Associated Press
“Bennett pulls it off brilliantly… Few novels manage to remain
interesting from start to finish, even — maybe especially — the
brilliant ones. But… Bennett locks readers in and never lets them
go… Stunning…She leaves any weighty parallels — between, for
example, racial and gender determinism — to the reader. Her
restraint is the novel’s great strength, and it’s tougher than it
looks… The Vanishing Half speaks ultimately of a
universal vanishing. It concerns the half of everyone that
disappears once we leave home — love or hate the place, love or
hate ourselves.” —Los Angeles Times
“Provides a meditation on the nuance of race that feels important,
now more than ever. It’s the kind of novel that demands to be read
— a propulsive, heartfelt work that keeps its reader both glued to
the page and chastened by the idea that soon the experience will
come to an end. . . You can call The Vanishing Half an
escape, but it’s a meaningful one.” —InStyle
"My hope is that the warranted praise Ms. Bennett receives for this
novel will have less to do with her efficient handling of timely,
or 'relevant,' subject matter than for her insights into the
mysterious compound of what we call truth: a mixture of the
identities we’re born with and those we create."—Wall Street
Journal
“Reinvention and erasure are two sides of the same coin. Bennett
asks us to consider the meaning of authenticity when we are faced
with racism, colorism, sexism and homophobia. What price do we pay
to be ourselves? How many of us choose to escape what is expected
of us? And what happens to the other side of the equation, the side
we leave behind? The Vanishing Half answers all these questions in
this exquisite story of love, survival and triumph.” —The
Washington Post
“A stunning page-turner… It’s a powerful story about family,
compassion, identity and roots… You will be thinking about The
Vanishing Half long after you turn the final page.” —Good
Morning America
“Brilliant … The Vanishing Half is at once a crowning jewel within
that body of work and a standalone achievement that transcends the
subject, a deeply human exploration of relationships and one of the
most un-put-downable reads of the year." – GQ
“Intricately plotted, exceedingly moving story…with insights into
the social and cultural history of passing, while telling what is
at heart a tender story about sisterhood, identity and, as Bennett
said, 'the endlessly interesting question of which elements in our
identity are innate, and which do we choose?'"—San Francisco
Chronicle
“Nuanced and deeply moving, The Vanishing Half is an
unforgettable meditation on family, privilege, and belonging.”
– Esquire
“The legacy of Toni Morrison looms large in The Vanishing
Half.” – Vox
“If you’re looking to escape into a fictional story, Bennett
brilliantly examines race and identity, family and history, and
love and belonging—and it just may make you reflect on the
realities of your own.” – Forbes
“Breathtaking plot.” —People
“[The Vanishing Half] is a dazzling mosaic exploring racism,
colorism, and the expectations we place on the ones we love the
most.” – Marie Claire
"I don't think I've read a book that covers passing in the way that
this one does . . epic." —Kiley Reid in O, the Oprah
Magazine
“Here, in her sensitive, elegant prose, [Bennett] evokes both the
strife of racism, and what it does to a person even if they can
evade some of its elements.”—Vogue
“Bennett creates a striking portrait of racial identity in
America.” —TIME
“Bennett writes like a master, reminiscent of Toni Morrison, Anne
Tyler and Elizabeth Strout.” —BookPage
“One of Bennett’s gifts as a writer is this: Her plots entertain
you while her characters make you think. In this case, about race,
gender, privilege, and the ways an identity can be built,
challenged, and rebuilt.” – Goop
“This is sure to be one of 2020’s best and boldest… A tale of
family, identity, race, history, and perception, Bennett’s next
masterpiece is a triumph of character-driven narrative.” —Elle
“A marvel…The Vanishing Half is an intergenerational examination of
identity, and what it’s like to grow up in a body you’ve been
conditioned to feel ashamed of. It’s a poignant family story that
doesn’t shy away from the intersections of race, class, and
gender—all while capturing the reader’s heart and mind in a way
only Bennett can.” —The Rumpus
"Irresistible ... an intergenerational epic of race and
reinvention, love and inheritance, divisions made and crossed,
binding trauma, and the ever-present past." —Booklist, STARRED
Review
"Assured and magnetic. . .Bennett is deeply engaged in the
unknowability of other people and the scourge of colorism…calls up
Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, the book's 50-year-old antecedent.
. . . [a] rich, sharp story about the way identity is
formed."—Kirkus, STARRED review
"Impressive … This prodigious follow-up surpasses Bennett’s
formidable debut."—Publishers Weekly, STARRED review
“The Vanishing Half is an utterly mesmerising novel, which
gripped me from the first word to the last. 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, Booker Prize winning author
of Girl, Woman, Other
“The detail and the feeling showcased in every sentence Brit
Bennett writes is breath taking. The Vanishing Half is a
novel that shows just how human emotion, uncertainty and longing
can be captured and put on paper.” —Candice Carty-Williams,
author of Queenie
"A novel of immense, shining, powerful
intelligence.” —Deborah Levy, two-time Booker
shortlisted novelist
“An impressive and arresting novel. Perceptive in its insights and
poised in execution, this is an important, timely examination of
the impact of race on personality, experience and relationships.”
—Diana Evans, the Orange Award winning author of Ordinary
People
“The Vanishing Half should mark the induction of Brit Bennett
into the small group of likely successors to Toni Morrison, Zora
Neale Hurston, and Nella Larsen..” —Sara Collins, author
of The Confessions of Frannie Langton
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