The Invention of Wings.

GoodReads Synopsis: Kidd’s sweeping novel is set in motion on Sarah’s eleventh birthday, when she is given ownership of ten year old Handful, who is to be her handmaid. We follow their remarkable journeys over the next thirty five years, as both strive for a life 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 by the historical figure of Sarah Grimke, Kidd goes beyond the record to flesh out the rich interior lives of all of her characters, both real and invented, including Handful’s cunning mother, Charlotte, who courts danger in her search for something better.

This exquisitely written novel is a triumph of storytelling that looks with unswerving eyes at a devastating wound in American history, through women whose struggles for liberation, empowerment, and expression will leave no reader unmoved.

My Thoughts:  This is my second book in the last month that is a fictionalized account of a real person.  I started this book for two reasons: 1) I needed an Oprah's Book Club book for my 2015 book challenge, and 2) it was the same audio narrator as in Z, whom I adored.  Once again, Jenna Lamia was a fantastic narrator as Sarah Grimke.  In this audiobook, she was paired with the wondeful Adepero Oduye, who read the voice of Handful.  The two of them together made this audiobook come alive.  

The story itself was amazing.  It had characters that immediately made me feel invested into their lives, an unusual ability to make me love characters that weren't always very sympathetic, and a saga-esque story that carried on for decades (yet masterfully fit within the confines of a 350 page book).  It's impossible to recount all the feelings that coursed through me as I listened to and read this story.  Read it, and you'll find out for yourself.  Five stars.