Blonde Roots

It was dark but there was a full moon, which shone directly onto me, providing a luminous, otherworldly glow, apparently. “I name you, my dearest, treasured new daughter, Doris Scagglethorpe,” he said, his voice throaty with emotion. “Doris Scagglethorpe: behold the only thing greater than yourself.”

A part of me was a little worried that a satirical narrative of slavery that found its commentary simply in inverting the races of the slave-holding and the enslaved would be facile. But I also love Bernadine Evaristo's work, so I went ahead, and I'm glad I did, because I found it a sharp, at times searing, literary device. There is some darkly funny stuff going on here, from the title itself to the designation of “Europa” as the Gray Continent. Beyond that, this novel contains some of the most harrowing and devastating depictions of slavery I have ever read, particularly the transport scenes. Recommend