Someone Knows My Name

Adapted into an epic television mini-series The Book of Negroes. Winner of the 2008 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize. Someone Knows My Name is a moving account of a woman’s struggle for freedom.

Abducted from Africa as a child and enslaved in South Carolina, Aminata Diallo thinks only of freedom. Sold to an indigo trader who recognizes her intelligence, Aminata is torn from her husband and child and thrown into the chaos of the Revolutionary War. In Manhattan, Aminata helps pen the Book of Negroes, a list of blacks rewarded for service to the king with safe passage to Nova Scotia - and a life of hardship and stinging prejudice. When the British abolitionists come looking for ‘adventurers’ to create a new colony in Sierra Leone, Aminata agrees to help, but discovers that going home is not the end of her journey.

this captivating story of one woman’s remarkable experience spans six decades and three continents and brings to life a crucial chapter in world history.

‘dynamic, moving, vividly written and historically accurate’ tHE AGE

‘wonderfully written … populated by vivid characters and rendered in fascinating detail’ NEW YORK tIMES

‘an unforgettable epic, seen through the eyes of a sharply realized, indomitable heroine’ Booklist ‘Stunning, wrenching and inspiring’ PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, starred review

‘a superb saga to get lost in … a deeply moving book of great finesse and nuance, impossible to put down’ SUNDAY tELEGRAPH