The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett

An ambitious, character-driven book that spans decades from the 1940s to the 90s and grapples with race and the transgender experience.

Stella and Desiree Vignes are twins born in the 1940s in a small town in Louisiana. The town is populated by people with fair skin, but in the segregated south, they are considered Black.

Scarred from witnessing the lynching of her father and desperate for money, Stella poses as a white woman to secure a job as a secretary. At the time, attempting to pass as white could bring violent consequences. To pull it off, Stella abandons her sister and mother and vanishes into a new life.

Over the coming years of separation, Stella and Desiree each have a daughter - Stella’s pale and Desiree’s dark. The book follows their coming of age in the 80s and 90s, decades that saw significant change in American attitudes towards race.

This book explores the intriguing question of what it means to be “true to yourself,” when our understanding of self cannot be separated from the broader social norms that shape our experience. This question is brilliantly stoked when Desiree’s daughter falls in love with a transgender man.

This novel stirs up politically charged discourse, but offers few clear answers – as is the prerogative of fiction. If Bennet does have a firm view, it is on human nature. Lying about the past – whether justified or not – can be a lonely choice, with significant long-term consequences.

Bennett is a skillful writer. The narrative moves at a quick pace, covers decades, and never loses momentum. It moves so quickly, in fact, that sometimes it summarizes large chunks of time and speeds past significant plot points, like the fact that Stella’s employer sexually abused her when he believed she was Black.

Bennett portrays her character’s complicated humanity with compassion. She sets the table for an exploration of controversial subjects, but she leaves the text sufficiently open for the reader to draw their own conclusions.