We have watched, with shock and horror, the events of not just this month with the death of George Floyd, but of many racially motivated incidents before that.\u00a0 Our goal at DIVINE is of course, to be an escape, and help you make your life a little more divine.\u00a0 Reading is an escape, but it\u2019s also a way to learn more, to empathize and to understand.\u00a0 As much as we try to be reflective of the country that we live in, we aren\u2019t perfect and we will continue to do better, to try harder and to listen.\u00a0 Many have asked where they can learn more and there are a lot of great resources out there.\u00a0 We want to share books that we\u2019ve already read that speak to the history and experience of black women.\u00a0 This is a monthly series that won\u2019t be going away.<\/p>\n
Our first book, \u201cThe Book of Negroes\u201d, was written by Canadian author, Lawrence Hill<\/a> and released in 2007.\u00a0 Hill is a professor of creative writing at the University of Guelph.\u00a0 He is also the author of ten books, but is best known for this award-winning novel.\u00a0 This is our first pick for a number of reasons. Hill, as mentioned is Canadian.\u00a0 He wrote the story from a woman\u2019s perspective which is extremely difficult to do.\u00a0 It details a black woman\u2019s journey<\/a> in a way that is rarely ever told.<\/p>\n Interestingly enough, in order to be published in the United States, the title of the book was changed to \u201cSomeone Knows My Name,\u201d \u2013 a switch that Hill himself had to make peace with.\u00a0 Here is the explanation, from The Guardian International Edition:<\/p>\n \u201cI used The Book of Negroes as the title for my novel, in Canada, because it derives from a historical document of the same name kept by British naval officers at the tail end of the American Revolutionary War. It documents the 3,000 blacks who had served the King in the war and were fleeing Manhattan for Canada in 1783. Unless you were in The Book of Negroes, you couldn’t escape to Canada. My character, an African woman named Aminata Diallo whose story is based on this history, has to get into the book before she gets out.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n In my country, few people have complained to me about the title, and nobody continues to do so after I explain its historical origins. I think it’s partly because the word “Negro” resonates differently in Canada. If you use it in Toronto or Montreal, you are probably just indicating publicly that you are out of touch with how people speak these days. But if you use it in Brooklyn or Boston, you are asking to have your nose broken. When I began touring with the novel in some of the major US cities, literary African-Americans kept approaching me and telling me it was a good thing indeed that the title had changed, because they would never have touched the book with its Canadian title.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Abducted as a child from her village in West Africa and forced to walk for months to the sea, Aminata Diallo is sent to live as a slave in South Carolina. But years later, she forges her way to freedom, serving the British in the Revolutionary War, registering her name in the historic \u201cBook of Negroes\u201d and eventually travelling back to Africa.<\/p>\n A sweeping story that transports the reader from a tribal African village to a plantation in the southern United States, from the teeming Halifax docks to the manor houses of London, The Book of Negroes introduces one of the strongest female characters in Canadian fiction, one who cuts a swath through a world hostile to her colour and her sex.<\/p>\n This book\u2026it\u2019s hard to say anything but those two words about this intricately told tale.<\/p>\n It came out thirteen years ago, and it is one that everybody should read. It will stay with you long after you close the book and move onto another. \u00a0You will almost see, hear and smell what it was like for Aminata Diallo on the slave ship.\u00a0 Aminata is a character who is battered, but never broken.\u00a0 Hill created a story, weaving in history in a way that had never been done before.\u00a0 He vividly brought the American slave experience to life.\u00a0 He weaved in Canadian history, British history, African history.\u00a0 You felt every single emotion.\u00a0 No word was superfluous and at 511 pages, that\u2019s saying a lot.<\/p>\n This is historical fiction; however, Hill is such a skilled writer that it feels like he went through all of the hardships that his Aminata had.\u00a0 It will open your eyes to current events in a timeless way.\u00a0 Slavery is an important part of the book, but the most important element is the courage and wisdom of Aminata.\u00a0 It\u2019s not just about her journey from slavery to freedom. It\u2019s about how she considers others despite her struggles.\u00a0 Her victory in the end is not large, but it is profound.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Book of Negroes\u201d is a masterpiece pure and simple.\u00a0 Learning doesn\u2019t just come from non-fiction.\u00a0 The time and dedication that Hill put in is evident.\u00a0 To truly understand oppression, sometimes you need to feel it through the lens of a heroine.\u00a0 That is exactly what Lawrence Hill was able to accomplish.\u00a0 This isn\u2019t just our first selection in this series.\u00a0 We recommend it, because it is one of the best novels ever written.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"About the Book<\/strong><\/h3>\n
The Review<\/strong><\/h3>\n