Book description
Kidnapped from Africa as a child, Aminata Diallo is enslaved in South Carolina but escapes during the chaos of the Revolutionary War. In Manhattan she becomes a scribe for the British, recording the names of blacks who have served the King and earned their freedom in Nova Scotia. But the…
Why read it?
2 authors picked Someone Knows My Name as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
This is an adventure story with the highest possible stakes. It portrays the most brutal and debased human urges and doesn’t shy away from graphically depicting horrifying scenes of disease, starvation, torture, filth, and death.
At the center is Aminata Diallo, who was kidnapped from Africa as a child and sent into slavery in North America. In her, Hill has created one of the most luminous characters in contemporary literature. Her voice speaks directly to our hearts with breathtaking authenticity and intelligence.
The beauty of her spirit and the strength of her hope, not to mention the power of her…
Someone Knows My Name, is a poignant portrayal of the horrors of the Transatlantic Slave Trade and the inhuman strength and perseverance of a woman who survived it.
As a writer and historian, I love when I find a writer who can put themselves inside the mind of a person from an earlier time. Lawrence Hill truly does, especially the way he describes how alien the new world was for someone who came from a different culture. How every detail is new, and how heart-wrenching it is to be torn from everything you know.
From Helen's list on historical fiction on women who changed history.
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A moving story of love, betrayal, and the enduring power of hope in the face of darkness.
German pianist Hedda Schlagel's world collapsed when her fiancé, Fritz, vanished after being sent to an enemy alien camp in the United States during the Great War. Fifteen years later, in 1932, Hedda…
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