First published 2000
In 1753, during a time of failed harvests and desperation, three siblings are sold to an English slave ship bound for America. Their stories unfold across different eras and continents. Nash, educated as a Christian and literate, returns to Liberia in the 1830s as a missionary sent by his former master. He struggles to adapt to the climate and connect with people so different from himself, no longer recognizing Africa as home after being torn from it as a child. Martha, at the century's end, loses her daughter and husband when they are sold to other territories. She risks everything to cross into the American West, escaping slavery but carrying the weight of all she has endured. Travis, an American soldier stationed in a British village during World War II, falls in love with a married white Englishwoman. They have a child together and dream of a life free from the judgments of the past. These three journeys weave together with the lamentations of the father who sold his children and the diary of a slave trader, creating a chorus that spans two and a half centuries of displacement and survival.
Genres: literary-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century, 21st-century, 19th-century, african-american-historical-fiction
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, found-family
Setting: America, Liberia, United States
Period: 1830s, 1753, World War II
256 pages · Paperback · Faber & Faber Ltd
Content warnings: colonialism, slavery