A provocative and "dizzying satire" (The New Yorker) that "boldly turns history on its head" (Elle) from the Man Booker Prize winning author of Girl, Woman, Other. What if the history of the transatlantic slave trade had been reversed and Africans had enslaved Europeans? How would that have changed the ways that people justified their inhuman behavior? How would it inform our cultural attitudes and the insidious racism that still lingers today? We see this tragicomic world turned upside down through the eyes of Doris, an Englishwoman enslaved and taken to the New World, movingly recounting experiences of tremendous hardship and the dreams of the people she has left behind, all while journeying toward an escape into freedom. A poignant and dramatic story grounded in provocative ideas, Blonde Roots is a genuinely original, profoundly imaginative novel.
Download and start listening now!
“As written by a biracial Brit, the enslaved life and attempted escape of Doris, the white Englishwoman at the satirical novel’s center, gains layers of complexity. As narrated by black British actress Sandra James-Young, who imbues Doris with an optimistic fierceness, that complexity only grows. Evaristo and James-Young would be a stellar pair no matter the context, and their team-up makes the Blonde Roots listening experience exceptional.”
—
Paste magazine (audio review)