The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd

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" Grimké, an urban slave in early-nineteenth century Charleston, and Sarah, the Grimkés' idealistic daughter. Inspired in part by the historic figure of abolitionist and suffragette Sarah Grimké, Kidd's novel is set in motion on Sarah's eleventh birthday, when she is given ownership of ten-year-old Handful. The Invention of Wings follows these two women over the next thirty-five years 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 uneasy ways of love.