4.5

“We believe the one who has power. He is the one who gets to write the story. So when you study history, you must ask yourself, whose story am I missing? Whose voice was suppressed so that this voice could come forth? Once you have figured that out, you must find that story too. From there you get a clearer, yet still imperfect, picture.”

This is an incredible, multi-generational novel that follow the descendants to half sisters, one who is sold into slavery, and one who is married off to those who profit from it. Each chapter is a vignette that follows the next generation of descendants, as the history and stories from each generation bleed through. It is an unusual, but beautifully executed style that I think is a fantastic catalyst for showing the impact of history. It can be so easy for short amounts of time to separate us from atrocities and trauma, which means that the impacts can go unaddressed – the structure of this book eloquently allows that barrier of time to be compressed so you can see the impact of each generation on future. On top of the socio-political commentary, discussions surrounding systemic racism, colonialism, oppression and civil rights, this is also a lovely way of poising the question of ‘where does your history start?”.