From the celebrated author of The Secret Life of Bees and the forthcoming novel The Book of
Longings a novel about two unforgettable American women. Writing at the height of her
narrative and imaginative gifts Sue Monk Kidd presents a masterpiece of hope daring the
quest for freedom and the desire to have a voice in the world. 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. 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. 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. 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. As the stories build to a
riveting climax Handful will endure loss and sorrow finding courage and a sense of self in
the process. 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. Inspired by the
historical figure of Sarah Grimke Kidd goes beyond the record to flesh out the rich interior
lives of all of her characters both real and invented including Handful's cunning mother
Charlotte who courts danger in her search for something better. This exquisitely written novel
is a triumph of storytelling that looks with unswerving eyes at a devastating wound in American
history through women whose struggles for liberation empowerment and expression will leave
no reader unmoved.
