Moving and hilarious in equal measure, Onuzo's deftly constructed novel sends listless Anna off on an invigorating quest to find her absent father - who may just have been the dictator of a West African nation.
Anna is at a stage of her life when she's beginning to wonder who she really is. She has separated from her husband, her daughter is all grown up, and her mother - the only parent who raised her - is dead.
Searching through her mother's belongings, she finds clues about the West African father she never knew. Through reading his student diary, chronicling his involvement in radical politics in 1970s London, she discovers that he eventually became the president (some would say the dictator) of a small nation in West Africa - and he is still alive. She decides to track him down and so begins a funny, painful, fascinating journey, and an exploration of race, identity and what we pass on to our children.
Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group
ISBN: 9780349013152
Number of pages: 304
Weight: 420 g
Dimensions: 218 x 142 x 34 mm
Utterly compelling ... A disarmingly moving, surprisingly hilarious and fascinating journey - Stylist
I LOVED Sankofa SO MUCH. It explores identity, duality, belonging, racism, post-colonialism ... and the writing style is beguilingly cool, wry, detached - Marian Keyes
Onuzo displays astonishing imagination and versatility in this fantastic novel about a woman's search for her personal, familial and national identity, delivered with deadpan humour in captivating prose - Sefi Atta
Captivating... A beautiful book about a woman brave enough to discover her true identity - Reese Witherspoon (2021)
Slick pacing and unpredict able developments keep the reader alert right up to the novel's exhilarating ending - Guardian Book of the Day
Onuzo's sneakily breezy, highly entertaining novel leaves the reader rethinking familiar narratives of colonization, inheritance and liberation - New York Times Book Review
A real pleasure, it's funny, thought-provoking and holds a light up to everything from cultural differences to colonialism - Stylist Unmissable 2021 Fiction
I loved venturing from London to the fictional African nation of Bamana in Sankofa, a novel I found hard to put down - Maggie Shipstead, Daily Mail
A really great book, very poignant but also told really straight - Sara Cox, Radio Times
A stirring narrative about family, our capacity to change and the need to belong - Time
Wonderful. Poignant and powerful and so timely and the beautiful ending had me in tears, reminding me to look within as well as without for my answers - Stella Duffy, 2021
Spellbinding . . . Onuzu's spare style elegantly cuts to the core of her themes. The balancing of Anna's soul-searching with her thrilling discoveries makes for a satisfying endeavour - Publishers Weekly
Unscrupulous politicians, irresponsible journalism, and the yawning gap between rich and poor feel deeply personal as Anna's journey unfolds . . . Fresh and new - Library Journal
A hugely compelling novel about identity and the stories we tell about ourselves - Anna James (2021)
An engagingly written journey of self-discovery - Kirkus Reviews
Uniquely layered and lovingly written - Ms Magazine
Sankofa is a simple, beautifully written book so compelling that I read it all in one day. It's the story of Anna Bain a mixed-race British woman who at 48 years old, following her mothers' death, discovers... More
Thanks to NetGalley and The Publisher for this eARC in exchange for an honest review.
3.5 stars rounded down.
I enjoyed reading this book. I would recommend it to anyone. I thought the writing was excellent and I...
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Thank you to the publishers for this review copy, I had not heard of it until I saw it listed as one of the books for Series 3 of Between The Covers with Sara Cox so having enjoyed the book selections from the... More
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