A hard-to-put-down, excellent read of slavery, harrowing but full of love and hope. The characters are very real and the writing is gripping. Based on fact, the actual document of ‘The Book of Negroes’, which is a list of all those who were taken by the British from America to Canada. This is the story of one such, Aminata, an intelligent, brave woman of immense strength and determination who follows her dream, whatever happens, to return to Africa. It won the 2008 Commonwealth Writer’s Prize. It is an epic, sweeping, magnificent tale, not to be missed.
Abducted from her West African village at the age of eleven and sold as a slave in the American South, Aminata Diallo thinks only of freedom - and of finding her way home again. After escaping the plantation, torn from her husband and child, she passes through Manhattan in the chaos of the Revolutionary War, is shipped to Nova Scotia, and then joins a group of freed slaves on a harrowing return odyssey to Africa. Based on a true story, Lawrence Hill's epic novel spans three continents and six decades to bring to life a dark and shameful chapter in our history through the story of one brave and resourceful woman.
Lawrence Hill was born in Ontario, Canada of a black father and a white mother. He is the author of a memoir, Black Berry,Sweet Juice, a work of non-fiction, The Deserter’s Tale, and two other novels. His third novel, The Book of Negroes (published in the US as Somebody Knows My Name) was a no.1 bestseller in Canada, and won the 2008 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best Book.
