The Vanishing Half

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 * New York Times *Bennett balances the literary demands of dynamic characterization with the historical and social realities of her subject matter… there is such depth, possibility and dramatic propulsion . . a brave foray into vast and difficult terrain… .The novel raises thorny questions about the cost of blackness. The answers are complicated * New York Times Book Review *Stunning … 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 * Los Angeles Times *Deeply compelling … brilliantly creates a network of characters - singular and vivid … There are moments … that stun with quiet power … The Vanishing Half more than succeeds as a beautifully imagined story about an American family * USA Today *

Born and raised in Southern California, Brit Bennett graduated from Stanford University and later earned her MFA in fiction at the University of Michigan, where she won a Hopwood Award in Graduate Short Fiction as well as the 2014 Hurston/Wright Award for College Writers. Her work is featured in The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, The Paris Review, and Jezebel. She is one of the National Book Foundation’s 2016 5 Under 35 honorees.