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.
