The Book Of Negroes
A Novel
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4.6 • 539 Ratings
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
Lawrence Hill’s nationally bestselling novel has garnered praise and awards around the world. The Book of Negroes has won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize and CBC Canada Reads, among many others. Lawrence Hill—and his remarkable character Aminata Diallo—have become household names throughout Canada.
Readers will follow the story of Aminata, an unforgettable heroine who cut a swath through an 18th-century world hostile to her colour and her sex. Abducted as an eleven-year-old child from her village in West Africa and put to work on an indigo plantation on the sea islands of South Carolina, Aminata survives by using midwifery skills learned at her mother’s side, and by drawing on a strength of character inherited from both parents. Eventually, she has the chance to register her name in the “Book of Negroes,” a historic British military ledger allowing 3,000 Black Loyalists passage on ships sailing from Manhattan to Nova Scotia.
This remarkable novel transports the reader from an African village to a plantation in the southern United States, from a soured refuge in Nova Scotia to the coast of Sierra Leone, in a back-to-Africa odyssey of 1,200 former slaves. Bringing vividly to life one of the strongest female characters in recent fiction, Lawrence Hill’s remarkable novel has become a Canadian classic.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
An international bestseller, The Book of Negroes tackles painful subject matter with eloquent grace. Using true stories of African slaves, Canadian author Lawrence Hill imagines a winning heroine—Aminata Diallo, who at age 11 is kidnapped from her adoring parents’ home and sold into slavery. The novel opens in 1802, when British abolitionists encourage Aminata to narrate her remarkable story, which unfolds in Africa, the United States, Canada, and England. Hill’s writing is exceptionally beautiful, and he empowers his protagonist with sparkling intelligence and wit. This exceptional contemporary classic—the inspiration for a TV mini-series—sheds light on a history that remains unhappily relevant today.
Customer Reviews
Spellbinding
I couldn't stop reading it, truly captured the essence of the time and felt like a true autobiography. Best book I've read in a long time. I forgot what it was like to lose myself so thoroughly in a story.
Splendid!
His book is undoubtedly the best book I have ever read. As a African, I probably did have ancestors that were slaves, but I was never affected by slavery. Reading this gave me a glimpse into what these people suffered, and it’s truly sad. I would read this book all over again, as if I had never read it, just to be amazed all over again by the words and the way the author tells this story.
Great read
This grabbed me right on page 1. Normally it takes me 50 or so pages to get into the story.