Beyond the Door of No Return by David Diop - 3 stars

[Jen K]

A French botanist passes away with his great work unfinished but has left his notebooks to his daughter as a bit of a last confession of his real journey while doing fieldwork in Senegal and a request. As a botanist, Adanson travels to Senegal to study plants but gets distracted by the people especially after he learns Wolof. He is in Senegal at the peak time of colonialism and the riches made by sending slaves to the Americas from the island of Goree and the door of no return. When a strange message is sent to a local chief about girl who disappeared years ago, Adanson is intrigued enough to follow up on the story and learns much on his journey about himself and Senegal. I kind adored his trusty young sidekick, Ndiak.

The best of the book was learning more about life in Senegal and the writing is lovely. Unfortunately I really disliked the paternalist Adanson. He learned Wolof and considered himself the good guy and expected the rewards and gratitude of being a good guy. Diop tried to keep him grounded but it didn't work so well. (view spoiler)[Especially his internal musings as Maram tells him her truly terrible experiences. Perhaps the last chapter is the real trick to the story but it was painful to bear witness. I felt sorry for all the women in his life. (hide spoiler)]