The Invention of Wings

The Invention of Wings is a novel by Sue Monk Kidd, set in early 19th-century Charleston, South Carolina. It tells the story of Sarah Grimké, a wealthy young girl who is given a slave named Handful for her eleventh birthday, and follows their intertwined lives over 35 years as both struggle against the institution of slavery and fight for their own forms of freedom. The novel is inspired by the historical figure Sarah Grimké, a real-life abolitionist and women's rights activist.