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3.5 

Sankofa

By Chibundu Onuzo
Sankofa by Chibundu Onuzo digital book - Fable

Publisher Description

A REESE'S BOOK CLUB PICK | AN AMAZON BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR

“A beautiful exploration of the often complex parameters of freedom, prejudice, and individual sense of self. Chibundu Onuzo has written a captivating story about a mixed-race British woman who goes in search of the West African father she never knew . . . [A] beautiful book about a woman brave enough to discover her true identity.” —Reese Witherspoon

“Onuzo’s sneakily breezy, highly entertaining novel leaves the reader rethinking familiar narratives of colonization, inheritance and liberation.” The New York Times Book Review

Named a Best Book of the Month by Entertainment Weekly, Harper's Bazaar, and Time • Named a Most Anticipated Book of the Month by Goodreads, PopSugar, PureWow, LitHub, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, and Buzzfeed

A woman wondering who she really is goes in search of a father she never knew—only to find something far more complicated than she ever expected—in this stirring narrative about family, our capacity to change and the need to belong (Time).


Anna is at a stage of her life when she's beginning to wonder who she really is. In her 40s, 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 one day, Anna finds clues about the African father she never knew. His student diaries chronicle his involvement in radical politics in 1970s London. Anna discovers that he eventually became the president—some would say dictator—of a small nation in West Africa. And he is still alive...

When Anna decides to track her father down, a journey begins that is disarmingly moving, funny, and fascinating. Like the metaphorical bird that gives the novel its name, Sankofa expresses the importance of reaching back to knowledge gained in the past and bringing it into the present to address universal questions of race and belonging, the overseas experience for the African diaspora, and the search for a family's hidden roots.
 
Examining freedom, prejudice, and personal and public inheritance, Sankofa is a story for anyone who has ever gone looking for a clear identity or home, and found something more complex in its place.

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1087 Reviews

3.5
Thinking Face“when anna’s mother dies - her world really feels at the verge of collapse. aside from the loss of her mother, she’s separated from her husband, and her daughter is grown and doesn’t need her. then she finds a diary that belonged to her father…a man she never knew. after some research, she learns her father became a polarizing politician, and in an effort to try and figure out who she is, she goes to africa to meet him. i bought this book at the cutest little used bookshop in london, on my birthday, based solely on the cover (because hello, jet lag). it was interesting to learn about anna’s father, see the drastic change to the man the world knows him as, and then get to know him as he is. though not one that i anticipate sticking with me in my memory, i did enjoy it!”

About Chibundu Onuzo

Chibundu Onuzo was born in Lagos, Nigeria and lives in London. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and regular contributor to The Guardian, she is the winner of a Betty Trask Award, has been shortlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize, the Commonwealth Book Prize, and the RSL Encore Award, and has been longlisted for the Desmond Elliott Prize and Etisalat Literature Prize. She is the author of Welcome to Lagos, and Sankofa is her third novel.

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