THE INVENTION OF WINGS embarks on a powerful and inspiring
journey through a time where many people struggled through
pain and heartache and prayed for equality.
Conflicted about what is the "family way" and what feels
right in her heart, Sarah Grimke decides that she doesn't
want to own slaves. She wants to free them. Growing up in a
time where doing so could cause severe punishment, not only
for Sarah but for the slaves she is trying to set free, she
finds herself caught between a rock and hard place. However,
when the time comes, Sarah finds herself, along with her
sister Angelina, right in the middle of a movement for
equality, and she no longer fears the repercussions of her
decisions.
Hetty "Handful" Grimke, a girl born into slavery, dreams of
the day when she will be free from the world of slavery.
When she is gifted to Sarah Grimke on Sarah's 11th birthday,
Hetty finds a loophole in the system which she can use to
her advantage. There appears to be a glimmer of hope that
she too can fly with the blackbirds, just like her mauma
told her about.
Both girls are pulled through heartache and turmoil as they
search their very different paths for something to
desperately grasp hold of, and in the process, they both
learn just what THE INVENTION OF WINGS really looks like.
Based off real-life sisters, Sarah and Angelina Grimke,THE
INVENTION OF WINGS by Sue Monk Kidd shows the power of
compassion, of integrity, of equality and most of all, of
freedom; the freedom to be the person you want to be no
matter what stands in your way, the freedom to hold a dream
in the palm of your hand and the freedom to do everything in
your power to reach it.
THE INVENTION OF WINGS by Sue Monk Kidd is a story about
human rights. It teaches about slave history and exactly
what life was like for slaves in the 1800's. It pierces your
heart as you step into history and realize how valuable just
one human life is, let alone thousands.
Writing at the height of her narrative and imaginative
gifts, Sue Monk Kidd presents a masterpiece of hope, daring,
the quest for freedom, and the desire to have a voice in the
world—and it is now the newest Oprah’s Book Club 2.0 selection.
Hetty “Handful” Grimke, an urban slave in early nineteenth
century Charleston, yearns for life beyond the suffocating
walls that enclose her within the wealthy Grimke household.
The Grimke’s daughter, Sarah, has known from an early age
she is meant to do something large in the world, but she is
hemmed in by the limits imposed on women.
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.
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