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Someone Knows My Name
Someone Knows My Name
Author: Lawrence Hill
Abducted from Africa as a child and enslaved in South Carolina, Aminata Diallo thinks only of freedom—and of the knowledge she needs to get home. — Sold to an indigo trader who recognizes her intelligence, Aminata is torn from her husband and child and thrown into the chaos of the Revolutionary War. In Manhattan, Aminata helps pen the Book ...  more »
ISBN-13: 9780393065787
ISBN-10: 0393065782
Publication Date: 11/5/2007
Pages: 512
Edition: 1st American Ed
Rating:
  • Currently 4/5 Stars.
 16

4 stars, based on 16 ratings
Publisher: W. W. Norton
Book Type: Hardcover
Other Versions: Paperback, Audio CD
Members Wishing: 6
Reviews: Member | Amazon | Write a Review

Top Member Book Reviews

kaberle avatar reviewed Someone Knows My Name on + 21 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 4
This book will have you in its grips from the first page. While the author says a lot of the book was made up to create the novel, it is still based in history and the horrors that made up the slave trade of the 1700-1800s.

Aminata is torn from her family, and sold in America where she is blessed with people who can see her intelligence and strength. Skills that her mother taught her as a child help her to reach a place of importance even as she is sold.

She loses many things in her life but creates a better life for many others in the process. All along you keep hoping beyond hope that she too, will find the happiness that seems to continue to allude her.

Since it is told in the first person you get a more graphic depiction of the horrors of slavery as seen through this young girls eyes, but you never get a real sense of all the facets of her personality.

Great read. I had a hard time putting it down to work!
reviewed Someone Knows My Name on + 271 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
This is a great read and hard to put down! It follows an 11 yr. old African girl from her village life to her capture by slavers in the mid-1700's. Each stage of her life from that point is described in detail. Just when you think you know what will happen next, new characters are introduced, and her life takes another turn. It is an epic tale that is rich and detailed. Written by a male author who depicts the heartaches, feelings and experiences of women with amazing accuracy, much the same as the author of Memoirs of a Geisha. Should be a classic. Excellent!
reviewed Someone Knows My Name on + 227 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
This is one of the best books I have ever read. It truly describes the experience of slavery- not just through the abuse, but the lack of freedom.
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reviewed Someone Knows My Name on + 1450 more book reviews
Great tale about African slave trade seen through the eyes of Aminatta "Meena" Diallo. Kidnapped when she was eleven from her home in a village called Bayo in west Africa, she is taken to the new world. Arriving in the American colonies she must learn who among the tuoab, white people, she can trust.

A strong woman, she uses her wits, midwife skills, ability to internalize new skills quickly, and strength of character, to survive. Her goal is only to live with her Chekura, her husband, and their children, who are taken from her. Through a fluke of fate, when Britain is defeated by the Americans she is able to sign a certificate proving she has worked behind British lines for at least a year and is sent to Nova Scotia. Ending up in London, she finds the British no more able to understand her people than the Americans.

Written in a simple, honest style through Meena, this wonderful book showcases a woman who rarely passes judgement,yet offers her thoughts and perspective to others. It's a story of slavery from Africa where tribes enslave those from other tribes to America where slaves work on plantations and often treated brutally.


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