“There is a mythical bird we have here, Anna. We call it sankofa. It flies forward with its head facing back. It’s a poetic image but it can’t work in real life.”

Wow! I could not put this book down. Sankofa is great, fast-paced story and compelling family drama that you’ll just want to keep reading. It’s also a story of mid-life self-discovery amidst divorce, challenging parent/child relationships, and living as a biracial woman from the 1960s to present. I knew I’d be hooked when Anna found the journal of the father she never knew… I just had to find out if she would track him down and meet him, and if so, what would he be like. The characters were done SO well, and the fictional country of Bamana was perfect and based off of bits and pieces from other West African countries. I loved going alongside Anna to wonder how much we can look in the past while expecting to move forward.

The narrator, Sara Powell, did an incredible job with this audiobook, and I am hopeful that she will be narrating more in the future! While Sankofa is perfect on audio, it is also a Book of the Month add-on as of this month if you prefer physical books.