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  • Published: 27 February 2020
  • ISBN: 9781473577190
  • Imprint: Transworld Digital
  • Format: Audio Download
  • Length: 12 hr 14 min
  • Narrator: Weruche Opia
  • RRP: $24.99

The Book Of Echoes

An astonishing debut. 'Impassioned. Lyrical and affecting' GUARDIAN




A powerful debut from an authentic new voice for the Doubleday list. THE BOOK OF ECHOES is a tender and intimate story of an African slave in search of her scattered descendants. For readers of SMALL ISLAND, WASHINGTON BLACK and THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD.

***SHORTLISTED FOR THE HWA DEBUT CROWN AWARD***

** As featured on Graham Norton's Book Club **

Brought to you by Penguin.


'A searing, rhapsodic novel' IRENOSEN OKOJIE

Narrated by the soul of an enslaved African woman, this is a searing debut novel about hope, redemption and the scars of history

Over two hundred years ago in Africa, a woman tosses her young son to safety as she is hauled away by slavers. After a brutal sea passage, her second child, a baby girl, is snatched away. Although the woman doesn't know it yet, her spirit is destined to roam the earth in search of her lost children.

Her spirit will make its way to modern-day England, where she watches teenage Michael trying to stay out of trouble as riots spit and boil on the streets of Brixton, and to a sun-baked village in Nigeria, where Ngozi struggles to escape her low-caste status.

As the invisible threads that draw these two lives together are pulled ever tighter, The Book of Echoes asks: how can we overcome the traumas of the past when they are woven so inextricably with the present? Humming with horror and beauty, Rosanna Amaka's remarkable debut marks her as a vibrant new voice in fiction.

© Rosanna Amaka 2020 (P) Penguin Audio 2020

  • Published: 27 February 2020
  • ISBN: 9781473577190
  • Imprint: Transworld Digital
  • Format: Audio Download
  • Length: 12 hr 14 min
  • Narrator: Weruche Opia
  • RRP: $24.99

About the author

Rosanna Amaka

ROSANNA AMAKA was born to African and Caribbean parents. She began writing THE BOOK OF ECHOES twenty years ago to give voice to the Brixton community in which she grew up. Her community was fast disappearing – as a result of gentrification, emigration back to the Caribbean and Africa, or simply with the passing away of the older generation. Its depiction of unimaginable pain redeemed by love and hope was also inspired by a wish to understand the impact of history on present-day lives. Rosanna Amaka lives in South London. This is her first novel.

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Praise for The Book Of Echoes

Bewitching. I almost felt like I time-travelled back into Brixton 1981. A gorgeous book - totally recommended.

ALEX WHEATLE, author of BRIXTON ROCK

Searing and rhapsodic. Filled with beauty, devastation and the power of ancestral connections that ripple through the ages

IRENOSEN OKOJIE

BEST NEW FICTION: A beautifully written testament to oppression that reverberates across the centuries.

DAILY MAIL

An absorbing debut

SUNDAY EXPRESS

Impassioned. Lyrical and affecting

GUARDIAN

Powerfully redemptive

INDEPENDENT

Fierce and poignant

TATLER

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COSMOPOLITAN MAGAZINE

Powerful, impassioned, thought-provoking

DAILY MAIL Staycation Sensations

A beautiful rich story that shows how hope can get people through the worst of times

PRIDE MAGAZINE

A breath-taking read. Both intimate and sweeping

LOUISE HARE, author of THIS LOVELY CITY

Bewitching. I almost felt i'd time-travelled back to Brixton in the 1980s. Highly recommended

ALEX WHEATLE, author of BRIXTON ROCK