The book of echoes

Rosanna AmakaPublished: 27/02/2020

£12.99

In stock

Over two hundred years ago in Africa, a woman tosses her young son to safety as she is hauled away by slavers. After a brutal sea passage, her second child, a baby girl, is snatched away. Although the woman doesn’t know it yet, her spirit is destined to roam the earth in search of her lost children. Her spirit will make its way to modern-day England, where she watches teenage Michael trying to stay out of trouble as riots spit and boil on the streets of Brixton, and to a sun-baked village in Nigeria, where Ngozi struggles to escape her low-caste status. As the invisible threads that draw these two lives together are pulled ever tighter, ‘The Book of Echoes’ asks: how can we overcome the traumas of the past when they are woven so inextricably with the present?

ISBN: 9780857526717 Category:

Description

SHORTLISTED FOR THE AUTHOR’S CLUB FIRST NOVEL AWARD
SHORTLISTED FOR THE RSL CHRISTOPHER BLAND PRIZE
SHORTLISTED FOR THE HWA DEBUT CROWN AWARD

‘A new classic’ SARA COLLINS, author of THE CONFESSIONS OF FRANNIE LANGTON
A gorgeous book’ ALEX WHEATLE, author of BRIXTON ROCK
_____________

Brixton 1981. Sixteen year-old Michael is already on the wrong side of the law. In in his community, where job opportunities are low and drug-running is high, this is nothing new.

But when Michael falls for Ngozi, a vibrant young immigrant from the Nigerian village of Obowi, their startling connection runs far deeper than they realise.

Narrated by the spirit of an African woman who lost her life on a slave ship two centuries earlier, her powerful story reveals how Michael and Ngozi’s struggle for happiness began many lifetimes ago.

Through haunting, lyrical words, one unforgettable message resonates: love, hope and unity will heal us all.
___________________

‘A searing, rhapsodic novel. Filled with beauty, devastation and the power of ancestral connections that ripple through the ages’ IRENOSEN OKOJIE, author of NUDIBRANCH
‘Lyrical and affecting’ GUARDIAN
____________
Readers’ love THE BOOK OF ECHOES:

‘A powerful and honest debut which is going to stay with me for a long time’ *****

‘You can feel Amaka’s passion rising off the page’ *****

‘BRILLIANT, thoughtful and masterfully crafted’ *****

‘Oh my goodness, the book itself is even more beautiful and haunting than the cover’ *****

Additional information

Weight 0.498 kg
Dimensions 22.2 × 14.4 × 3.5 cm
Author

Publisher

Imprint

Cover

Hardback

Pages

374

Language

English

Edition

Hardback original

Dewey

823.92 (edition:23)

Readership

General – Trade / Code: K

Join our Mailing List

Sign up to the Jaffé & Neale newsletters to receive updates on forthcoming titles we’re excited about, book club information and book signing events at the store.