
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. 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.Īs the stories build to a riveting climax, Handful will endure loss and sorrow, finding courage and a sense of self in the process. 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. 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. 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. This means that if you choose to purchase, I’ll make a small commission.) The Invention of Wings Synopsis

We’ve provided suggestions for 3 books like The Invention of Wings! Finally, we’ve curated a few quotes from book reviews to ensure you and your book club get to see the full breadth of opinions on this read!Īnd if you enjoyed the novel, be sure to read to the end of this guide for a special treat. Next, we’ve provided 10 The Invention of Wings book club questions that should spark conversation between you and your friends. First, we’ve provided a synopsis of the book, to help you keep track of all those characters and historical events.

Our discussion guide for The Invention of Wings is formatted to help you make the most of the lessons you internalized while you were reading. What allows people to overlook atrocities committed right under their noses? Can true love co-exist with pity, anger, and guilt? Is freedom worth paying any price? We’re here to help you tackle these thorny themes with our The Invention of Wings book club questions. But be warned, once you are transported into the past, you will have to reckon with some of its most troubling questions. Selected by Oprah’s Book Club 2.0 and based on the true story of one of America’s first female abolitionists, The Invention of Wings is filled with the sights, smells, crafts, and chores of a bygone era.

If you’ve set a goal to help your book club read more diversely or examine racial issues, we have just the book for you: The Invention of Wings, by Sue Monk Kidd.
