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May 01, 2011

Shannon rated it:

(International title: Someone Knows My Name)
It's 1802 and Aminata Diallo, now an old woman, sits down to write her life story at the request of the Abolitionists in London. Abducted from her village in West Africa at the age of eleven and marched in a coffle (a string of slaves) for three months before reaching the coast, Aminata survives the voyage to America and ends up sold to an indigo plantation owner in South Carolina. She describes herself as lucky, because compared to the tragic ci More...

17 comments like (40 people liked it)

May 01, 2011

Bonnie rated it:

Update (2):
This just in from BOOK NEWS -
"Lawrence Hill's bestselling novel The Book of Negroes is set to be adapted for film thanks to a chance meeting in a Toronto bookstore."
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts...

Update:
"The Book of Negroes" by Lawrence Hill tops Amazon.ca books list for the week ending June 16, 2009

Larry's extensive research and plain great story-telling are only two of the reasons why it was Longl More...

4 comments like (18 people liked it)

May 01, 2011

Eastofoz rated it:

This was a quite a surprise read. At first I was expecting something along the lines of Alex Haley’s Roots but it doesn’t have the same quick pace and gut wrenching scenes, it did however prove to be an eye opener with a strong story overall.

Told in the first person and mostly through narration (two writing styles I normally dislike), the story comes to life from beginning to end which shows how talented a writer Lawrence Hill is. Even though it was told in the first person the rea More...

4 comments like (6 people liked it)

May 01, 2011

Lesliemae rated it:

I think this box is not large enough to encompass what I learned from this book. I learned about the slave trade in Canada, I learned about Loyalists coming into Nova Scotia in hopes of land and freedom and finding only disillusion, disappointment, and segregation. This tale follows Aminata Diallo from Africa to South Carolina to New York City, to Birchtown, Nova Scotia to Seirra Leone to London, England. By the end of the novel I was so invested in Aminata's story that I was moved and cried More...

0 comments like (8 people liked it)

May 01, 2011

Brian rated it:

I found it absorbing; I found it readable. I wanted to like it more than I actually did. If any of Horatio Alger's characters had been born African and sold into slavery, Aminita Diallo might be its preincarnation. It's hard to say that any slave is fortunate, yet Aminita, compared to those around her, keeps drawing to an inside straight only to be dealt the right card. Hollywood should love it. Maybe plausibility is not the most important element in historical fiction. The story "fe More...

1 comment like (7 people liked it)

May 01, 2011

Shelly rated it:

I love male authors who can write a convincing female lead in their novels. Lawrence Hill's Aminata Diallo is a strong, lucky, fierce woman and I really enjoyed reading her life story.

The writing itself flows so easily that falling into the story and just getting lost in it was super easy. The story itself was in turns shocking, heartbreaking and uplifting.

I am glad I sat down and fell into this book, it was worth every minute.

2 comments like (7 people liked it)

May 01, 2011

Wilhelmina rated it:

What an amazing book! The protagonist is spectacular - I don't think that I have ever identified so completely with a character in slavery. The author incorporates historical events which were new to me - always a plus. The story was so compelling and so true to human behavior. No group was all good or all bad, just human. I am just dazzled by this superb work.

5 comments like (8 people liked it)

May 01, 2011

Precious rated it:

I chanced upon this novel in a rather random way. I was invited to discuss my own forthcoming book at a book club and the book club were reading The Book of Negroes for March. I'd heard of the novel but didn't have immediate plans to read it. In the end I read the entire huge tome (it's about 500 pages) in just two or three days. I actually could not stop reading it.

I learnt a lot from this book. I learned a lot about my own family history. I am half Sierra Leonean and the Si More...

3 comments like (8 people liked it)

May 01, 2011

Shane rated it:

I found this book to be the feminine parallel of "Roots," that I read many years ago, with Aminata Diallo, a Mother Courage like character, traversing the history and geography of what was the prime trading area of the slave industry in the second half of the 18th century.

Plucked from her village as an 11-year old, she endures a harrowing voyage to America, is traded, raped, robbed of her baby and husband, and arrives in New York at the time of the War of Independance. She More...

2 comments like (5 people liked it)

May 01, 2011

Bill rated it:

My expectations were set really high for this one. It sat proudly at the top of my to-read pile with an imposing 4.40 average across close to 1400 ratings.

Now, I'm not one of those dinks who look to read popular novels (see Da Vinci Code pinheads) just so they can turn their haughty noses up on them and knock down averages), but I'm afraid my rating will knock this average down just a notch. Not because I'm a pinhead, but because
The Book of Negroes lacks what I need in a novel. More...

6 comments like (6 people liked it)

Feb 19, 2009

jo rated it:

as best as i can judge, lawrence hill reproduces here the style and tone of the classic slave narratives, which he also credits at the end (in particular, he directs to reader to The Classic Slave Narratives collected by henry louis gates in one volume that includes olaudah equiano's, mary prince's, frederick douglass', and harriets jacobs' autobiographies). i have taught a couple of slave narratives (douglass and jacobs) and i must say it was a labor of love, because, well, because they sound d More...

14 comments like (7 people liked it)

Jan 31, 2008

Demetria rated it:

"Someone Knows My Name" is historical fiction about a young black woman who is stolen from Africa and finds herself as a slave in the US. Without giving too much of the book away (it is a good book and you should read it), the main character is in New York around the time of the Revolutionary War. The British promised black folks freedom if they helped the British forces against what would later be called the United States. Obviously, the British lost, but they did take a few thousand More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Apr 12, 2009

MAP rated it:

This is an excellent book, and well worth reading.
It is the second book I've read in the last 6 months that dealt with slavery during the Revolutionary War period. The first was The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing. Both novels featured Lord Dunmore, the royal governor of the Virginia colony, who promised slaves that they would be made free if they fought with and worked for the British against the rebels. The rebels, of course, were white property owners who were fighting against Brit More...

2 comments like (2 people liked it)

Sep 10, 2010

Dav'ne rated it:

As a teenager I thought "Gone with the Wind" was romantic. To this day my mother still does. I lost that illusion years ago and am grateful that I am no longer that naive girl. This book is narrated by a fictional African, Aminata Diallo, who was stolen from her village in Africa in the mid 18th century prior to the Revolutionary War. It is a story of thievery, loss, dishonesty, misery, pain, and heartache. Another page turner that I can't put down. Nearly finished and Meena (as she is More...

2 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 24, 2011

Ella rated it:

Ik ben erg gegrepen door dit boek. Het levensverhaal van een Afrikaans meisje, gevangen door slavenhandelaars en verscheept naar Amerika. Door haar intelligentie en haar wil om te overleven leert ze lezen en schrijven, spreekt verschillende Afrikaanse talen maar leert buiten neger-Engels ook beschaafd Engels te spreken.
De schrijver heeft heel veel research gedaan naar de tijd van de slavenhandel en de uitbuiting van de negers door Amerikanen en door Engelsen.
Ook de Nederlanders hebb More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 29, 2012

Marisa rated it:

My family is anti conditions-of-blacks-in-the-American-south type of literature. I was taught to avoid being "one of those black people who obsess over slavery" and focus on our future. Being born in Canada and growing up in an East African/West Indian family, there was a belief that the American slave experience was somehow "not our experience". With that said, the only reason I read this book is because the author is from Canada. Shallow, but true.

The story is More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jan 01, 2012

Sinthu rated it:

I thought that The Book of Negroes was a great summer read. Lawrence Hill assumes a tone which allows one to learn about the history of slavery in a way that is personal and reflective of lived experiences. The author brings historical documents to life primarily through the character, Aminata Diallo. (Hill provides an extensive list of sources at the end of the book if you wish to learn more).

Aminata is orphaned and snatched by slave-traders when she is only a child. Throughout her l More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 01, 2011

Shannon rated it:

The Book of Negroes taught me some things that I didn't know about slave history and that is always a good thing. The story is character and plot driven. It is surprisingly easy to read given the potential for horrendous acts (and there is horror). Because it was such an easy read I waffled about giving it 4 stars as I was reading it but by the time I finished I realized that the story matched the narrators personality.

I loved this book because it starts in Africa. We get to know Ami More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

May 01, 2011

Lana rated it:

Through Aminata we see many different facets of the slave trade. For me the author has used Aminata to show us many of the different experiences slaves might have encountered, in that way she seems to have lived the lives of more than one person, and taught me much more than I knew about the slave trade.

Personally I have connections to Nova Scotia so it was interesting (an informative) to hear about how the slaves were treated there. It was also hard to know that those things took p More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 22, 2008

Susan rated it:

I am sorry to report I was disappointed in this book. I was excited to read about the Black Loyalists of Nova Scotia. But there wasn't enough about that; most of the book was devoted to Aminata's kidnapping, passage, and slave days. Nothing wrong with that, but when he finally got around to the less familiar topics, he seemed to run out of gas.

What bothered me more, though, was the mediocre writing (and editing). There were just too many inconsistencies (why isn't she unfamiliar More...

4 comments like (7 people liked it)

Mar 07, 2009

Gail rated it:

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 moth More...

1 comment like (3 people liked it)

May 01, 2011

Cj rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 18, 2011

Chrissie rated it:

If a GR Librarian read this could you combine Someone Knows My Name and The Book of Negroes. They are the same book!

I have no trouble giving this five stars. This is fiction that adds to history, that makes history come alive! Great writing. The story about Aminata and the slave trade is engrossing. Who she is as a person and how she develops and changes during her life is reflected in her thoghts and speech. Her closeness to Africa and the African people is physically felt by the More...

17 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 17, 2011

Julie rated it:

I just started this. I've read about a 100 pages. The section with the young Aminata being abducted and forced onto the slave ship was tough to read--really horrific.

I'm reading it for a book club so will continue, but it's a harrowing story and a terrible reminder of what so many Africans endured.

****

After finally finishing this novel I can say that it's worth the read. I learned a lot about the slave trade, especially the Black Loyalists' plight in Nova Scotia--a More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

May 01, 2011

Theresa rated it:

A very provocative novel about a slaves life from beginning to end. Although it is fictional, the historical events that take place, such as the revolutionary war in the 13 colonies, are for the most part accurate. Lawrence Hill writes this so beautifully that rather then read about Meena's journey, you actually take it along with her. It is provoking to your own emotions of anger, sadness, triumph and joy. Once I had finished reading I found myself time and again searching for more information More...

2 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 01, 2011

Jack rated it:

Listened to this on a podcast where it was read by Kim Roberts from "Between the Covers" available from the CBC. The heroine, Aminita, tells the story of her life from the vantage point of the safety of her old age in England where she has been taken by the Abolitionists to help push their anti-slave trading agenda through Parliament. She takes us from her kidnapping in Africa at age eleven, through her journey to America, her escape to Canada, eventual return to Africa, and finally t More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 25, 2012

Rowena rated it:

This is definitely the best book I've read in 2011 and one I will remember for a long time. Aminata Diallo is such a powerful character, a woman who had to deal with so much in her life but came out with a small victory in the end. Slavery is something we all know about but it's very rare we really think about what the slaves went through, and how they were forced to adopt to a new culture and life separated from their family and homeland.Lawrence Hill did exceptional work on this book.

2 comments like (2 people liked it)

Feb 12, 2009

Toni rated it:

Published under the title " The Book of Negroes"

In 1745, Aminata Diallo was a precocious 11 year old living with her doting family in Mali. One day on her way home from helping her mother she was abducted by African slavers. After a harrowing voyage aboard a slave ship to America, Aminata is sold to an indigo plantation on an island off the coast of South Carolina.

Aminita is blessed with the love and understanding of many languages and her ability to read and w More...

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Jan 20, 2009

Erin rated it:

EXCELLENT. Highly recommended.

When I think of slavery in the US and the books I have read on the subject, my mind goes to the Civil War and the fight for freedom. This book takes place around the time of the Revolutionary War and tackles a previous unknown to me period in the history of slavery--the fight for the end of the slave trade. Think about it. There was baby steps in the whole process. Imagine having to pick your battle. First do away with the slave trade then tackle the en More...

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Feb 10, 2012

Belles rated it:

Enjoyed the book immensely! A few observations to share: first, I think the original title was better, because one thing this does is show conditions for blacks, slaves, ex-slaves, etc., in many different places. So we get a much richer idea of what the situation was like for these people – it was The Book of Negroes – many different Negroes. Second, although some have objected to the heroine’s going off with the slave traders, it was the dream to which she had clung for decades – at least sh More...

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