She is best known for her historical novels, which frequently deal with themes of race, feminism, and religion and include The Secret Life of Bees[1][2] and The Book of Longings.

When the Heart Waits: Spiritual Direction for Life's Sacred Questions (Harper San Francisco, 1990) tells of her painful midlife crisis.

Finally, The Dance of the Dissident Daughter: A Woman's Journey from Christian Tradition to the Sacred Feminine (Harper San Francisco, 1996), discussed her encounter with women's spirituality.

Her first novel, The Secret Life of Bees (2002), is set during the American civil rights movement of 1964,[6] telling the story of a white girl who runs away from home to live with a black woman who now works as an independent bee-keeper and honey-maker with many of her sisters.

The novel was also adapted as a movie of the same name by Fox Searchlight, starring Dakota Fanning, Queen Latifah, Jennifer Hudson, Alicia Keys and Sophie Okonedo.

The story concerns a woman who upon coming home to an island off the coast of South Carolina becomes attracted to a Benedictine monk who is just a few months short of taking his final vows.

Her 2014 novel The Invention of Wings is set during the antebellum period and based on the life of Sarah Grimké, a 19th-century abolitionist and women's rights pioneer.

[9] The first 14 months of the writing process were taken up by extensive research on the period and setting, including Kidd's own travel notes on Egypt, Palestine, and Jordan.