From the author of The Secret Life of Bees comes The Invention of Wings, a novel that looks at one of the most devastating wounds in American history through two women struggling for liberation, empowerment, and self-expression.

Hetty “Handful” Grimke, a ten-year-old urban slave in early nineteenth century Charleston, yearns for life beyond the walls that enclose her within the wealthy Grimke household. The Grimkes’ daughter, Sarah, is compelled to do something large in the world, but she is hemmed in by the limits imposed on women.

On Sarah’s eleventh birthday, she is given ownership of  Handful, who is to be her waiting maid. Over the next 35 years, they 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. Book signing to follow.