The Vanishing Half

Spannender Roman über mehrere Generationen mit einem trans* Mann in einer Nebenrolle als Partner von einem der Kinder der Zwillinge (s. u.) sowie mit einigen Drag Queens. Der Roman spielt in den USA zwischen 1968 und 1986 und thematisiert Rassismus, Klassismus, Sexismus und Trans*feindlichkeit. Der trans* Mann wird einfühlsam dargestellt und während es auch um Körperdysphorie und darum geht, wie er an Testosteron und eine Mastek kommt, wird er vor allem über seine Charaktereigenschaften und Interessen definiert.  Verlagsbeschreibung:

A stunning new novel about twin sisters, inseparable as children, who ultimately choose to live in two very different worlds, one black and one white.

The Vignes twin sisters will always be identical. But after growing up together in a small, southern black community and running away at age sixteen, it’s not just the shape of their daily lives that is different as adults, it’s everything: their families, their communities, their racial identities. Many years later, one sister lives with her black daughter in the same southern town she once tried to escape. The other secretly passes for white, and her white husband knows nothing of her past. Still, even separated by so many miles and just as many lies, the fates of the twins remain intertwined. What will happen to the next generation, when their own daughters’ storylines intersect?

Weaving together multiple strands and generations of this family, from the Deep South to California, from the 1950s to the 1990s, Brit Bennett produces a story that is at once a riveting, emotional family story and a brilliant exploration of the American history of passing. Looking well beyond issues of race, The Vanishing Half considers the lasting influence of the past as it shapes a person’s decisions, desires, and expectations, and explores some of the multiple reasons and realms in which people sometimes feel pulled to live as something other than their origins.