The Invention of Wings

This month's book club pick is The Invention of Wings, by Sue Monk Kidd - bestselling author of The Secret Life of Bees. Monk Kidd's evocative writing takes readers back once again to America's Deep South, and a tale of two exceptional women.

Sarah Grimk is the middle daughter. The one her mother calls difficult and her father calls remarkable. On Sarah's eleventh birthday, Hetty "Handful" Grimk is taken from the slave quarters she shares with her mother, wrapped in lavender ribbons, and presented to Sarah as a gift. Sarah knows what she does next will unleash a world of trouble. She also knows that she cannot accept. And so, indeed, the trouble begins...

A powerful, sweeping novel inspired by real events and set in the American Deep South in the nineteenth century, The Invention of Wings evokes a world of shocking contrasts, of beauty and ugliness, of righteous people living daily with cruelty they fail to recognise; and celebrates the power of friendship and sisterhood against all the odds.

"The fascinating story of real-life abolitionist sisters, Sarah and Angelina Grimké... A splendid tribute to a pair of true heroines." - The Times

Sue Monk Kidd is the award-winning author of the novels The Secret Life of Bees and The Mermaid Chair. She is also the author of several acclaimed memoirs, including the New York Times bestseller Travelling With Pomegranates, written with her daughter Ann Kidd Taylor.

The Invention of Wings is available online and from all good booksellers - all our free copies have now gone but there's still time for you to buy a copy and join in this month's Book Club.