The Book of Negroes
| Price: |
$34.95 |
| On Sale: |
18/01/2007 |
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Formats:
Hardcover
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Abducted as an 11-year-old child from her village in West Africa
and forced to walk for months to the sea in a coffle—a string of slaves— Aminata
Diallo is sent to live as a slave in South Carolina. But years later, she forges
her way to freedom, serving the British in the Revolutionary War and registering
her name in the historic “Book of Negroes.” This book, an actual document,
provides a short but immensely revealing record of freed Loyalist slaves who
requested permission to leave the US for resettlement in Nova Scotia, only to
find that the haven they sought was steeped in an oppression all of its own.
Aminata’s eventual return to Sierra Leone—passing ships carrying thousands of
slaves bound for America—is an engrossing account of an obscure but important
chapter in history that saw 1,200 former slaves embark on a harrowing
back-to-Africa odyssey.
Lawrence Hill is a master at transforming the neglected corners
of history into brilliant imaginings, as engaging and revealing as only the best
historical fiction can be. A sweeping story that transports the reader from a
tribal African village to a plantation in the southern United States, from the
teeming Halifax docks to the manor houses of London, The Book of Negroes
introduces one of the strongest female characters in recent Canadian fiction,
one who cuts a swath through a world hostile to her colour and her sex.
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
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Author Extras
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Awards for The Book of Negroes |
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The Commonwealth Writers'' Prize
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The Rogers'' Writers Trust Awards
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The Commonwealth Writers'' Prize
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The Rogers'' Writers Trust Awards
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The Rogers'' Writers Trust Awards
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Critical Praise for
The Book of Negroes
"A mesmerizing, utterly compelling journey into the heart of slavery, The Book of Negroes is destined to join the great classics of our times. Inside a world of brutality, a powerful spirit is evoked with such sensitivity and lyricism that it is impossible not to be deeply moved, and impossible to stop reading. Lawrence Hill has embodied the narrator completely, and I in turn felt intimately connected to this wondrous woman. Stylistically flawless, thematically layered and historically fascinating, this novel is a masterpiece."
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Edeet Ravel, author of A Wall of Light and Look for Me
"Lawrence Hill, a cultural and spiritual descendant of West African griots, has used his vast storytelling talents to create an epic story that spans three continents. Book of Negroesrecites the pain, misery, and liberation of one African woman, Aminata Diallo, who was stolen from her homeland and sold into American slavery. Through Aminata, Hill narrates the terrifying story of slavery and puts at the centre a female experience of the African Diaspora. I wept upon reading this story. Book of Negroes is courageous, breathtaking, simply brilliant."
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Afua Cooper, author of The Hanging of Angélique and Copper Woman
"The Book of Negroes is a novel that should be sung, rather than read. It is a song of worship, in praise of the taste of an orange, the smell of a newborn; and it is a lament to the horrors we are capable of inflicting on each other, no matter what the colour of our skin. But above all else it is a love song urging us to celebrate our romance with our own dear humanity. "Ba means river," Lawrence Hills' powerful character Aminata writes in The Book of Negroes. "It also means mother." When I finished this novel, I held my children close and cried over them, because this novel was a heartbreaking reminder that they are the river through my life, just as much as I am the river through theirs, and this is a river that will continue to flow long after we are gone. The Book of Negroes is not only a lesson on where we came from, but a warning about the future, a future that, with vigilance, we might avoid. It is a courageous, challenging, and beautiful book."
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Gail Anderson-Dargatz, author of The Cure for Death by Lightning
"The Book of Negroes has all the elements of good historical fiction: an epic story, detail that can only come from deep research, and astute insights into human frailty....Hill's not afraid, either, of bringing to light the way African warlords profited from the slave trade.... An important tour de force."
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NOW Magazine
"With Aminata, Hill has created a magnificent voice…. The Book of Negroes is a masterpiece, daring and impressive in its geographic, historical and human reach, convinving in its narrative art and detail, necessary for imagining the real beyond the traces left by history."
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The Globe and Mail
"Anna Karenina. Hagar Shipley. Aminata Diallo. . . . The exclusive club that includes literature's most memorable characters now has a remarkable new member."
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The Calgary Herald
"Masterful. . . . The Book of Negroes is thoughtful, stirring, saddening, resplendent and joyful. It's an evocative tome, and among the best in our fiction."
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The Hamilton Spectator
"The Book of Negroes is not just a good book, but a great one—worthy of every honour it is sure to receive."
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The Gazette (Montreal)
"I don't think there is any way of overstating Lawrence Hill's contribution to contemporary Canadian fiction. . . . What makes The Book of Negroes extraordinary is Hill's ability to transcend the facts—to make something magical out of them. Despite the unpalatable subject matter, he compels our attention and manages to delight. His Aminata is a heroic figure, a little larger than life, residing within and outside of history. You can never forget this character. She embeds herself in your heart."
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Toronto Star
"Lawrence Hill has created a spectacular novel pulsing with the power of the 'sleeping lion'."
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The Chronicle Herald (Halifax)
"A remarkable novel.... A compelling read."
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Literary Review of Canada
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The Illustrated Book of Negroes
This beautiful full-colour gift edition of the new Canadian classic, The Book of Negroes , shares with readers the many photos, works of art and documents that inspired Lawrence Hill to create his award-winning work. It adds to the novel more than 150 images: early maps and documents, archival...
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