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The Vanishing Half posted by Robyn

In Brit Bennett's best seller The Vanishing Half, Desiree and Stella Vignes are identical twin sisters whose personalities are as different as night and day.  They are light skinned African American girls growing up in the small town of Mallard, Louisiana in the 1950s.  They are traumatized as children when they witness the murder of their father.  As teens, they run away together and make a life in New Orleans.  Despite the fact that they are very close, their paths into adulthood go different directions.  Ten years later, Desiree returns to their hometown to live with their mother in 1968.  She is a single mom with a very black young daughter in tow.  Stella, on the other hand, has passed as a white woman and has married into wealth.  She has no plans to see her sister or mother again, and doesn’t share her past or race with her husband or very white daughter.  The lives these sisters make for themselves as well as their daughters results in a compelling and thoughtful story which will remain with the reader long after the last page has been turned.

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