A sweeping story that introduces one of the strongest female characters in recent fiction.Abducted from Africa as a child and enslaved in South Carolina, Aminata Diallo thinks only of freedom—and of the knowledge she needs to get home. Sold to an indigo trader who recognizes her intelligence, Aminata is torn from her husband and child and thrown into the chaos of the Revolutionary War. In Manhattan, Aminata helps pen the Book of Negroes, a list of blacks rewarded for service to the king with safe passage to Nova Scotia. There Aminata finds a life of hardship and stinging prejudice. When the British abolitionists come looking for "adventurers" to create a new colony in Sierra Leone, Aminata assists in moving 1,200 Nova Scotians to Africa and aiding the abolitionist cause by revealing the realities of slavery to the British public. This captivating story of one woman's remarkable experience spans six decades and three continents and brings to life a crucial chapter in world history.
From the moment she introduces herself--a loved and trusted child in eighteenth-century Africa--through her capture by slavers, her servitude in South Carolina, her time as a runaway in New York City, and her experience as a freed woman in Nova Scotia, Aminata Diallo is a deeply compelling character. Aminata is brilliant at literacy and languages, and these become her shield and weapon. Adenrele Ojo's warm, gentle voice is a perfect instrument for rendering Meena and her world, which Hill and Ojo together make stunningly real. In a perfect universe, Ojo would not have attempted the British accents and would not, distractingly, pronounce "st" as "sht" ("shtreet," "shtrength," and so on), but it would take far more than that to render this powerful novel and sensitive performance less than remarkable. B.G. (c) AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine
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