The Invention of Wings

A triumphant story about the quest for freedom and empowerment, Sue Monk Kidd's third novel presents the extraordinary journeys of two unforgettable women: Hetty "Handful" Grimke an urban slave in early nineteenth century Charleston, and Sarah, the Grimkes ' idealistic daughter.  

Inspired in part by the historic figure of abolitionist and suffragette Sarah Grimke, Kidd's novel is set in motion on Sarah's eleventh birthday, when she is give ownership of ten-year-old Handful.  The Invention of Wings follows these two women over the next thirty-five year as both strive for lives of their own, dramatically shaping each other's destinies and forming a complex relationship marked by guilt, defiance, estrangement, and the uneasyways of love.