This book offers educational insights into the shameful history of slavery, in North America and in Africa. It would have been considerably more memorable and profound, however, if I could have felt an emotional connection of some kind to the main character, Aminata Diallo. She is more a symbol and didactic construct than a fully believable human being – could that all have happened to one person, physically and with historical accuracy? Unfortunately, because I could not suspend my disbelief for so central an aspect of this book, it was difficult for me to really warm to this book and its worthy themes.