The Book Of Negroes [Paperback]

Starred Review. Stunning, wrenching and inspiring, the fourth novel by Canadian novelist Hill (Any Known Blood) spans the life of Aminata Diallo, born in Bayo, West Africa, in 1745. The novel opens in 1802, as Aminata is wooed in London to the cause of British abolitionists, and begins reflecting on her life. Kidnapped at the age of 11 by British slavers, Aminata survives the Middle Passage and is reunited in South Carolina with Chekura, a boy from a village near hers. Her story gets entwined with his, and with those of her owners: nasty indigo producer Robinson Appleby and, later, Jewish duty inspector Solomon Lindo. During her long life of struggle, she does what she can to free herself and others from slavery, including learning to read and teaching others to, and befriending anyone who can help her, black or white. Hill handles the pacing and tension masterfully, particularly during the beginnings of the American revolution, when the British promise to free Blacks who fight for the British: Aminata's related, eventful travels to Nova Scotia and Sierra Leone follow. In depicting a woman who survives history's most trying conditions through force of intelligence and personality, Hill's book is a harrowing, breathtaking tour de force. (Nov.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

"The Book of Negroes is a masterpiece, daring and impressive in its geographic, historical and human reach, convincing in its narrative art and detail, necessary for imagining the real beyond the traces left by history."
--THE GLOBE AND MAIL -- THE GLOBE AND MAIL

"Aminata is a heroic figure, a little larger than life, residing within and outside of history.You can never forget this character."
--TORONTO STAR --Toronto Star

"The Book of Negroes is a masterpiece, daring and impressive in its geographic, historical and human reach, convincing in its narrative art and detail, necessary for imagining the real beyond the traces left by history." --The Globe and Mail

"Aminata is a heroic figure, a little larger than life, residing within and outside of history.You can never forget this character." -- Toronto Star --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

"Let me begin with a caveat to any and all who find these pages. Do not trust large bodies of water, and do not cross them. Crossing water never improved my life, always worsened it. If you, Dear Reader, have an African hue and find yourself led toward water, seize your freedom by any means necessary . . . and cultivate distrust of the colour pink. Especially if it's from the light of the dying sun. Pink is taken as the colour of innocence, the colour of childhood, but the way that it spills across the water in the late afternoon constitutes nothing short of sleight of hand. . . . What benevolent force would bewitch the human spirit by choosing pink to light the path of a slave vessel?"

- from The Book of Negroes --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

LAWRENCE HILL is the award-winning author of Black Berry, Sweet Juice; Any Known Blood; and Some Great Thing. He also co-authored, with Joshua Key, The Deserter's Tale. Lawrence Hill lives in Hamilton, Ontario.

Lawrence Hill is the author of the novels Any Known Blood and Some Great Thing, and the non-fiction work Black Berry, Sweet Juice: On Being Black and White in Canada. He also co-authored, with Joshua Key, The Deserter's Tale: The Story of an Ordinary Soldier Who Walked Away from the War in Iraq. He lives in Hamilton, Ontario. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.