#brit bennett

The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett

Endorsement from submitter: "significant secondary character is a trans man"

The Vignes twin sisters will always be identical. But after growing up together in a small, southern black community and running away at age sixteen, it's not just the shape of their daily lives that is different as adults, it's everything: their families, their communities, their racial identities. Many years later, one sister lives with her black daughter in the same southern town she once tried to escape. The other passes for white, and her white husband knows nothing of her past. Still, even separated by so many miles and just as many lies, the fates of the twins remain intertwined. What will happen to the next generation, when their own daughters' storylines intersect?

Weaving together multiple strands and generations of this family, from the Deep South to California, from the 1950s to the 1990s, Brit Bennett produces a story that is at once a riveting, emotional family story and a brilliant exploration of the American history of passing. Looking well beyond issues of race, The Vanishing Half considers the lasting influence of the past as it shapes a person's decisions, desires, and expectations, and explores some of the multiple reasons and realms in which people sometimes feel pulled to live as something other than their origins.

Setting: significant stretch of US, 1950–1990+

Historical fiction, literary fiction, adult

The Last of the Wine by Mary Renault

Endorsement from submitter: "Alexias and Lysis's relationship is great and also a really interesting look at ancient Greek sexual dynamics in general. Also, Alcibiades is there!"

In The Last of the Wine, two young Athenians, Alexias and Lysis, compete in the palaestra, journey to the Olympic games, fight in the wars against Sparta, and study under Socrates. As their relationship develops, Renault expertly conveys Greek culture, showing the impact of this supreme philosopher whose influence spans epochs.

Setting: Ancient Greece, 5th century BC(E)

Quote 63 :

You could drown in two inches of water. Maybe grief was the same.

– The Vanishing Half, Brit Bennett

Quote 66 :

You can go home again, so long as you understand that home is a place where you have never been.