Books
"What We Lose" Is Bustle's Book Club Pick That You Don't Want To Miss
The theme of Bustle's American Woman Book Club is to explore the many varied experiences of being an American woman. In August, we will be reading What We Lose by Zinzi Clemmons, and hearing all about the experience of feeling like an outsider in the U.S. Here's what's in store if you join us.
In What We Lose, Zinzi Clemmons tells the story of Thandi, a young woman born and raised in Pennsylvania, but shaped in many ways by her mother's stories of growing up in Johannesburg. Thandi feels neither black nor white, neither American or not — and her mother is the only thing that holds these parts of her life together. But after Thandi loses her mother to cancer, she has to search for a new anchor. What follows is a series of poignant vignettes showing Thandi's romantic encounters, and her own unexpected experience of motherhood. The narrative is as fragmented as Thandi's own sense of identity, perfectly letting the reader into the experience of having an identity that you feel doesn't quite belong.
What We Lose is about race; it's about family; it's about one's home and country and all the different things that can mean. So pick up a copy of this beautiful book (and I mean literally — have you seen that gorgeous cover?!), and read along with us this month.
What We Lose by Zinzi Clemmons
To read along with Bustle's American Woman Book Club, follow us on Goodreads and join in with the discussion, as we learn all about yet another way to be an American woman.
