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Apr 26, 2021ryner rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
Though they have never met, sisters Effia and Esi live in 18th-century Ghana in western Africa, at the height of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. One of them will marry a high-ranking British official, while the other will be captured, sold and thrust into a brutal and inhumane life of bondage. This engaging and stirring family saga follows generations of their descendants — though hardship and heartbreak, joy and triumph. This novel was both amazing and achingly disturbing. It paints a clear picture of how real human lives, not to mention entire cultures, were irrevocably altered and devastated by slavery and colonialism. It places humanity, names and faces onto people who lived so long go and whose fates were so similar that they are otherwise rendered collectively anonymous today. Highly recommended.