This book will have you in its grips from the first page. While the author says a lot of the book was made up to create the novel, it is still based in history and the horrors that made up the slave trade of the 1700-1800s.

Aminata is torn from her family, and sold in America where she is blessed with people who can see her intelligence and strength. Skills that her mother taught her as a child help her to reach a place of importance even as she is sold.

She loses many things in her life but creates a better life for many others in the process. All along you keep hoping beyond hope that she too, will find the happiness that seems to continue to allude her.

Since it is told in the first person you get a more graphic depiction of the horrors of slavery as seen through this young girls eyes, but you never get a real sense of all the facets of her personality.

Great read. I had a hard time putting it down to work!

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This is a great read and hard to put down! It follows an 11 yr. old African girl from her village life to her capture by slavers in the mid-1700's. Each stage of her life from that point is described in detail. Just when you think you know what will happen next, new characters are introduced, and her life takes another turn. It is an epic tale that is rich and detailed. Written by a male author who depicts the heartaches, feelings and experiences of women with amazing accuracy, much the same as the author of Memoirs of a Geisha. Should be a classic. Excellent!

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This is one of the best books I have ever read. It truly describes the experience of slavery- not just through the abuse, but the lack of freedom.

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Great tale about African slave trade seen through the eyes of Aminatta "Meena" Diallo. Kidnapped when she was eleven from her home in a village called Bayo in west Africa, she is taken to the new world. Arriving in the American colonies she must learn who among the tuoab, white people, she can trust.

A strong woman, she uses her wits, midwife skills, ability to internalize new skills quickly, and strength of character, to survive. Her goal is only to live with her Chekura, her husband, and their children, who are taken from her. Through a fluke of fate, when Britain is defeated by the Americans she is able to sign a certificate proving she has worked behind British lines for at least a year and is sent to Nova Scotia. Ending up in London, she finds the British no more able to understand her people than the Americans.

Written in a simple, honest style through Meena, this wonderful book showcases a woman who rarely passes judgement,yet offers her thoughts and perspective to others. It's a story of slavery from Africa where tribes enslave those from other tribes to America where slaves work on plantations and often treated brutally.

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