The Invention of Wings: With Notes (Oprah's Book Club 2.0 3)

This special eBook edition of The Invention of Wings features Oprah's personal notes highlighted within the text and a reading group guide. Set in early nineteenth-century Charleston, the novel follows two women whose lives become intertwined. Hetty "Handful" Grimke is an urban slave in the wealthy Grimke household who yearns for freedom beyond its walls. Sarah Grimke, the family's daughter, has long felt called to do something significant in the world but is constrained by the limitations placed on women. When Sarah turns eleven, she is given ownership of ten-year-old Handful as her handmaid. Over the next thirty-five years, their parallel journeys unfold as both seek lives of their own. Their relationship is marked by guilt, defiance, estrangement, and complicated love. Handful endures loss and sorrow while discovering courage and self-understanding. Sarah experiences crushed hopes, betrayal, and ostracism before eventually leaving Charleston to join her sister Angelina in the abolition and women's rights movements. Inspired by the historical figure of Sarah Grimke, the novel explores the interior lives of both real and invented characters, including Handful's mother Charlotte. The narrative examines American history through the struggles of women seeking liberation, empowerment, and expression.