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Blonde Roots
- Narrated by: Charlotte Beaumont, Ben Arogundade
- Length: 7 hrs and 15 mins
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Summary
Brought to you by Penguin.
Imagine if the transatlantic slave trade was reversed.
Imagine Africans the masters and Europeans their slaves....
Now meet young Doris, living in a sleepy English cottage. One day she is kidnapped and put aboard a slave ship bound for the New World. On a strange tropical island, Doris is told she is an ugly, stupid savage. Her only purpose in life is to please her mistress. Then, as personal assistant to Bwana, Chief Kaga Konata Katamba I, she sees the horrors of the sugarcane fields. Slaves are worked to death under the blazing sun. But though she lives in chains, Doris dreams of escape - of returning home to England and those she loves....
Critic reviews
"A phenomenal book. It is so ingenious and so novel. Think The Handmaid's Tale meets Noughts and Crosses with a bit of Jonathan Swift and Lewis Carroll thrown in. This should be thought of as a feminist classic." (Women's Prize for Fiction Podcast)
"A bold and brilliant game of counterfactual history. Evaristo keep[s] her wit and anger at a spicy simmer throughout." (Daily Telegraph)
"So human and real. Re-imagines past and present with refreshing humour and intelligence." (Guardian)
What listeners say about Blonde Roots
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- C K Lee
- 27-09-22
A fascinating switch up
Personally, I loved this book. The world the author built was incredibly well done and it was really interesting to think about the other aspects of life that the slave trade had on society, such as the westernised standard of beauty. I loved the way to biological basis for slavery was put across in this book to really demonstrate how anyone can justify slavery if they try and find reasons.
The books ending was a bit disappointing, but the overall book was a great listen.
Anyone saying they don't really see the point in it needs to try and think about the wider implications this book is trying to make.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Miss D Srao
- 16-12-22
Superb!
Loved this book. It challenges your perception of slavery by allowing the table to be turned and for suspending privilege and then seeing how it feels for the transgressors of slavery to become the transgressed, for the oppressors to become the oppressed.
A unique and brilliant concept explored in a genuinely ground breaking way. Wish it was longer!
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- Samantha abbott
- 07-07-22
A Must Read/Listen
Absolutely loved this.
If you're white and ever wondered how you'd feel as a slave. Read this. If you're white and haven't thought about it, then you should definitely read this book.
It's poignant, hard hitting and has speckles of humour.
Bernadine writes so wel, the whole book just flows.
Read this book
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1 person found this helpful
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- The Shevolutionist
- 28-08-21
An interesting and alternative slave experience
This author never fails to tell an interesting story. Blonde roots had me captured from the start. Cleverly told that sometimes I forgot it was being told from an alternative perspective of whites being enslaved and blacks as the slave masters. I enjoyed this book, if not slightly disappointed at the end where I hoped for what I felt was an abrupt ending.
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- Luke
- 16-10-22
Gripping and thought provoking
I wasn't sure how much I was enjoying this book to start but by half way through I couldn't get back to it quickly enough. The whole concept was very clever and several scenes jolted me back to what this was based on.
Well constructed and well narrated, recommended.
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- Cliente de Amazon
- 24-12-20
A feat
It made me laugh and cringe, and it didn't let me look away. Superb narration.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Considered opinion
- 31-05-22
Good but felt short-changed
Great concept for a story and supported with plenty of detail - albeit making for uncomfortable reading in places. Let down somewhat in the telling by the male narrator - too laboured - I actually found it less irritating when the audio speed was increased to x1.2 for the male voice sections.
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- Al
- 02-05-22
simply swapping the races makes you think
the simple device of swapping the races, amazingly, has a huge effect on how you understand this horendous chapter of british history. well written, the story explores many of the horrific realities of the western slave trade.
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- Amazon Customer
- 14-07-23
A important, hard book
I knew in general terms the history of the real Atlantic slave trade before reading this, but however appalling the facts, they do not pull on our emotions like stories do. This book will make you feel something of the pain of those thousands ripped from their homes and loved ones, those who lived and died never knowing freedom, all for the sake of satisfying other men's greed. It's a hard book to read, both not exactly because of what it depicts, but because of knowing that it mirrors reality so closely. However, refusing to acknowledge the past will make it less true, and we must know our past in order to make the future better. So, read it.
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- Amy Daneel
- 15-09-23
Should be mandatory reading
This book should be mandatory reading in every British school, colleges and university. Wow. Wow. Wow.
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