This epic but fast-moving novel focuses on several members
of the same multigenerational family, starting with Kollie, a Liberian-American
teenager in 2008 Minnesota struggling with his school, community, and family. The novel moves between the United States and
Liberia and backward and forward in time ranging from 1826, soon after
African-Americans settled in the new African country, to 2018. Gibney only spends a few chapters with each
group of characters, and I would have been happy to read more about any of
these parents, children, soldiers, and lovers, but the book’s relative brevity
speeds it along. All major characters’
stories are compelling, even as they face terrible hardships and losses. The final section ties these tales together
in an especially satisfying way. Gibney
is both a gifted author—her prose is poetic but realistic—and an authority on
the subject: she is a professor of English and African diaspora (and she offers
a helpful historical timeline at the end of the book).
Recommended by Andrew Gerber
Click here to view in the catalog.
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