about the book
The Grimkés are a wealthy family at the very top of Charleston’s social hierarchy. They own a sprawling elegant home, a huge plantation, and as many slaves as they want. Sarah Grimké is the fiercely independent, intelligent middle daughter and she is just turning eleven. As a birthday gift, Sarah is given a young slave girl named Hetty Handful, age ten.
Sarah hates the brutal slave system. She wants to reject “the gift” but can’t. If she can’t free Hetty, she can make the slave’s life better by teaching her to read. Educating slaves is a criminal offense in antebellum South Carolina, and when she declares what she has done, both girls are cruelly punished. Sarah is banned from her father’s book collection. Hetty is whipped.
This historical novel is based on the life of the real Sarah Grimké, her fiery sister Angelina, and the fictional character of Hetty Handfull. During the next thirty years, they cope with their complicated relationship and the prejudiced society that dictates women’s roles and what they can read, think, and say.
Though bound in slavery, Hetty is far more psychologically free than Sarah. Her mother has given her the wings of hope, and she survives servitude by creating rituals and touchstones, giving them meaning and power. She learns to sew and becomes the best seamstress in the city. It offers her spiritual freedom, and eventually, freedom in the form of a disguise. But she also becomes embroiled in a slave rebellion that will shake Charleston to its very core.
Though society crushes her dream of studying law, Sarah, with the aid her family, goes on to support and lead the abolitionist cause and fight for women’s rights, eventually gaining a national following. She faces exile, heartbreak, repression, and finally a renaissance of spirit and determination to dare to reach for the unattainable. Together she and Hetty create a bond that dramatically shapes both of their destinies.
about the author
Sue Monk Kidd is a southerner through and through. She was raised in Sylvester, Georgia, during the turbulent ‘50s and ‘60s. The stories she remembers most came from the black domestics in her family’s’ home. Racism was all around her, and she was passionate about civil rights. She was also a feminist. She grew up in a time when every girl was expected to marry young and turn her husband’s home into his personal castle. Those experiences and the culture she grew up in deeply influenced her writing.
As was expected, Sue married young and had two children. She earned a bachelor’s in nursing from Texas Christian University and worked most of her life as a registered nurse and a college nursing instructor. But at the age of 30, she sat her husband down and informed him that she was going to be a writer. Her earliest works were explorations of her inner self, inspired by the writings of Thomas Merton
Her novel, The Secret Life of Bees, was a literary phenomenon. It was on the New York Times bestseller list for more than two years, sold more than six million copies, and was translated into 36 languages! It was produced on stage and went on to be an award-winning movie. It took Sue 23 years to write the book, which is used in many classrooms. Not bad for a first novel!
Sue went on to write adult nonfiction books on contemplative spirituality and feminist theology, but returned to fiction, winning prizes for her second novel, The Mermaid Chair. The Invention of Wings is Sue’s third novel. It debuted on the New York Times bestsellers list and is in the process of becoming a movie.
Sue was inspired to write the novel after seeing the Grimké sisters’ names inscribed in a feminist art installation. Though she had lived for thirteen years near their historical home, she had no idea who they were. Research convinced her to tell their story through Sarah’s voice. She had found a mention of Sarah’s slave in her research, and Sue knew she needed another strong character to counterbalance Sarah’s story, so she imagined Hetty Handful with the wings of hope. Unfortunately the real Hetty died young.
Thankfully, Sue found her true calling. Sue lives with her husband, Sandy, and continues to write in Southwest Florida.
Sources:
Author website
Author interview: NPR
Author interview: New York Times
Book trailer: The Invention of Wings
Also by Sue Monk Kidd:
The Mermaid Chair. Viking Penguin. 2005.
The Secret Life of Bees. Viking Penguin. 2002.
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