The opening of “The Book of Echoes” at West India Docks, London in 1803 was a very powerful and emotional start to this poignant and at times harrowing story. Narrated by the spirit of a kidnapped African slave, she roams the streets, houses and lives of people, together with her lover ‘Wind’, endlessly searching for their lost child.
The story then jumps nearly two hundred years and we see into the lives of Michael, who is struggling to stay out of trouble after the brutal murder of his step mother and Ngozi, a servant girl struggling to escape her low-caste status in a poor sun-baked village in Nigeria.
Throughout the story we are privy to how Michael and Ngozi’s lives change rapidly through the years and at times it was heartbreaking to read. I enjoyed reading (though it was exceedingly sad) the intermittent chapters of the ghostly narrator and her backstory with the distressing slave ships and how she was so brutally kidnapped.
There were many memorable moments to the story, slavery, the Brixton riots, the plight of blacks in South London as they tried to make a life for themselves and poor Ngozi as she faces the abuse and trauma of man after man she encounters, through to the disappearing of black communities due to recent gentrifications of areas and subsequent emigration.
“The Book of Echoes” is a redemptive story of how trans-generational trauma and racism can destroy a person but how resilience, survival and all the good things in life can instinctively turn lives around. I did thoroughly enjoy this book but felt it petered out a bit towards the ending and didn’t quite impact on me the way I was expecting and hoping by the denouement.
Saying that, this is still a well deserved four star book for a timely, intricately written, beautiful story that highlights the struggles of African men and women and how slowly we are eliminating the world of racism and the bigotry that accompanies it.
The author Rosanna Amaka is a debut writer and has spent the last twenty years composing and writing this book, to give voice to the Brixton community she grew up in and a wish to promote the understanding of the impact history has on present day lives.
It is without doubt that Rosanna will be writing more novels, I just hope we don’t have to wait another twenty years to read it! “The Book of Echoes” is highly recommended.

4 well deserved stars!

I loved this book when I actually got into it but in the beginning found it very hard going and confusing.All I can say is persevere and you will be rewarded.
It is a very brave book that deals in great depth with the history of coloured people in society throughout the world and the way they have been persecuted even to this day.

A beautifully written story about two people, Michael in Brixton and Ngozi in Laos, and a tortured spirit of a slave who haunts the London docks looking for her lost children. The story explores the horrors of the slave trade and how it echoes through the centuries. It follows the lives of Michael and Ngozi, which are full of hardship, despite this, both move forward because of their courage.

Rich in details of their lives, portrayed through vivid imagery. It is honest and poignant. Echoes of the past affect both Michael and Ngozi. The spirit who watches over them is herself an echo. A heartbreaking story, which brings the past to life, and shows how it illuminates the present. The ending is powerful and uplifting.

I received a copy of this book from Random House UK, Transworld Publishers - Doubleday via Netgalley in return for an honest review.

My thanks to Random House U.K. Transworld Publishers/Doubleday U.K. for an eARC via NetGalley of ‘The Book of Echoes’ by Rosanna Amaka in exchange for an honest review.

“A sweeping, uplifting story of how a boy from Brixton and a girl from Lagos escape their dark past to find themselves a bright future.”

The narrator of this powerful novel is the uneasy spirit of an African slave woman, who died on the London docks in 1803 after fleeing Jamaica. Through time she seeks her children: the son left behind in Africa when she was taken by slavers and her baby daughter, born in London just before her death. “Sometimes I hear them cry for me and each day I look, from here to Virginia, to Barbados, to Haiti, to Cuba, to Jamaica, and back again to the Bight of Biafra and the Bight of Benin, and further inwards to my homeland. But every day I return to these London docks hoping they will remember and return.”

In the late 20th century she follows the lives of two young people. Michael Watson has grown up in Brixton while Ngozi leaves her village in Nigeria to become a maid in Lagos. Both experience tragedy and undertake journeys towards better lives that take them through hardship, heartbreak, and injustice. There are common elements to their experiences. Eventually they connect and their lives are transformed.

The echoes of the title references the unsettled spirit of the woman whose momentary decision to stop and give thanks at a shrine led to her enslavement and her poignant message to her scattered descendants: “But I tried to fight, tried to find you, waited here for you, but still I hear the damage echo down the generations.”

Rosanna Amaka was born to African and Caribbean parents and has been writing this novel for twenty years with the intention to give a voice to the Brixton community where she grew up. I feel that her desire is well realised in her debut novel.

This was such an amazing novel and it is hard to find adequate words to express its effect upon me. I was deeply moved and felt that it was very balanced. Yes, terrible and unfair things happen to both Ngozi and Michael but there is also hope and a deep sense of community. The language is very rich and it is a novel that I would have loved to have on audio to better appreciate this aspect.

A beautifully written, thought-provoking novel and it is one that I would recommend without reservation.

The new decade has just begun when life as he knows it ends for 16-year-old Michael Watson: his mother is murdered in their home and he and his little sisters find themselves alone in Brixton. The person who always told him that people of Jamaican descend have to work two times as hard as others and should keep their head down is gone and it does not take too long until his mother’s concerns are proven right. Thousands of kilometres south in a small Nigerian village, Ngozi has to say goodbye to her mother and younger sisters, she is sent to town to work as a maid and earn money for the family. Two kids who hardly have anything in common except for the very poor and hard start in life. Yet, they are born fighters and in them, they carry the echo of decades of people who had to face a similar situation and also fought for their future.

Rosanna Amaka tells the two very different stories alternatingly, you switch from Thatcher London to chaotic Nigeria and even though the surrounds could hardly differ more, there are some parallels between Michael and Ngozi. It is obvious that their lives have to collide at one point, yet, much less obvious to answer is the question if they will succeed and escape the poor life they are born in.

I totally adored the story around Ngozi even though there is not much to adore in her life. The hardship of her family who does not know how to make ends meet, a father who ignores his kids and later the families who employ and exploit her. Born and raised in Europe, one cannot really imagine the life of a girl of her background:

“’Ngozi, as a woman there are some things we have no choice in,’ she says and gets up from her chair. (...) She goes to sleep and to cry over the innocence her daughter will lose.”

Young girls are the most vulnerable and those who can just take advantage of it. Her employer, the employer’s wife, white men coming to Africa who believe to be superior and to have the right to treat people there like goods – it is not just what they have to endure but also how they seem to accept this as a fact of life, just as Ngozi’s mother put it.

For me, it took a bit too long to bring the two parts together, admittedly, the end was also a bit too foreseeable and sweet. Each on its own works perfectly well and could have done without the other actually. Nevertheless, the novel is beautifully written and I totally enjoyed reading it.

I’m not sure any review I write can do this glorious novel the justice it deserves. The Book of Echoes is a masterpiece of storytelling which kept me enthralled from start to finish. Spanning centuries from slavery to the modern day this novel tells of the lives of Michael and Ngosi. Michael, of Jamaican heritage is living in Brixton, at the time of the riots whilst when we first meet Ngosi she is selling oranges outside a bus station in a small Nigerian village. Their stories may appear very different but they are similar in so many ways. The history of their ancestors is in their DNA and both are trying to overcome the racial hatred, injustice, poverty and lack of opportunity that governs their lives. But with strength of character,indomitable fighting spirit combined with the love of those closest to them can these two individuals rise above society’s expectations and prove that over time, with patience and determination lives can change for the better?
I was completely fascinated by both Michael’s and Ngosi’s stories, who although are continents apart, are bound by these invisible threads. The feelings of helplessness, inevitability and injustice are woven into this ambitious and thought provoking read that had me captivated. It is moving, heartfelt and hopeful. I couldn’t possibly choose a favourite between Michael and Ngosi; such wonderful strong characters who face their daily struggles head on and it is hard to imagine and appreciate the extent of their hardships which left me speechless and ashamed by the actions of generations of the white male privileged race. It is impossible not to feel enormous compassion for the pair, who maybe fictional but represent the real lives of so many. Themes such as stop and search and deaths of black men in police custody fuel Michael’s fight for change whilst poverty, lack of education and the appallingly way women have been treated by men, both white and black over centuries compel Ngosi forward towards a better future.
The writing is outstanding as well as giving you a real sense of place particularly when reading about Ngosi’s experiences. It is haunting too as echoes of a woman enslaved years ago are whispered poetically throughout, guiding Ngosi through her lifetime. One line for me succinctly captures the essence of this book for the situations these two characters face throughout their lives...’We’re just entering a different phase in the fight’...meaning history has shaped them but there is always hope.
Such an impressive debut that I highly recommend without hesitation.
My thanks as always to the author and publisher and Netgalley for allowing me to read in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.

I really liked this book. Amaka's prose is gorgeous to read - the book just draws you into the story. Both characters felt real and all their choices were completely understandable, meaning where they ended up made total sense. I also really liked the inclusion of the ancestral narrator. I think this is one I'll want to go back to and read again.

A powerful human story of struggle against poverty and discrimination as a young man and woman take a journey to break free from a predetermined fate in search of a better life. Driven by an ancestral voice they are destined to meet, even though they live worlds apart, Michael in London and Ngozi in Nigeria.

The African slave trade and the poor souls that were treated so inhumanly is a rich ground for compelling stories, of torn lives, echoes of ancestral voices and spirits that seek resolution or retribution. The Book of Echoes starts with an African slave who when captured in Africa leaves behind her son and gives birth to a daughter as she arrives in London. Put to death along with her partner, Wind, they haunt the West India docks in London

“My heart cries out for the two, Uzo, my baby boy, and my baby girl, taken from me that morning while I lay dying over there among the barrels of sugar, spices and tobacco, the feel of the cold hard floor against my back.
…
Each day I search for them, look for them, hunt for them. I did not choose to leave them. I am and will always be their mother, their African mother.”

Now two hundred years later, as she narrates her own story and the stories of Michael and Ngozi, we see the same old racial prejudices and bigotry still echoing in society. Maybe not as blatant but still as caustic.

Michael is facing a difficult time with family issues, money issues, racial discrimination and association with illegal activities. The life he leads and the stark choices he is forced to make are very powerfully portrayed by Rosanna Amaka. Ngozi also has to make very tough choices if she can better her prospects through education and moving away from the family home. Both their lives require the fortitude to keep going through real challenges and end the echoes of hardship and misery that reverberate through generations and an inferred cycle that cannot be broken.

While I expected to be enthralled throughout this book, I wasn’t, and that was quite disappointing. From a beginning where it seemed to set up a narrative that would have totally captivated me it then down-shifted and lost its appeal. There were periods when it picked up and the story showed some of that promise but it ended in a predictable way. Rosanna Amaka does provide an authentic voice and her passion to vividly portray the difficulties the black community face is fabulous and I appreciate her achievement.

I think there will be a great cohort of readers that will really enjoy this novel to the full, but I just have my reservations. I would rate the book 3.5+ stars and I’d like to thank Doubleday, Random House UK, Transworld and NetGalley for providing me with a free ARC copy of this book in return for an honest review.

Thanks to NetGalley and The Publisher for this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I almost didn't finish this book as I found style of writing very inconsistent. In parts lyrical and poetic and in others East-end gangster crime novel-esque. I also found the themes to be going over the same old ground in relation to Transatlantic Slavery, Black British History, and Nigerian poverty. I had high hopes for this book, but my expectations were not met. I'm glad I stuck with it as I did enjoy the ending even those it was very soppy.

The Book of Echoes by Rosanna Amaka starts with the story of an African woman who was captured in her village and put on a slavery ship to work on the plantations in Jamaica. Her spirit lives on and witnesses the plight of those that came after her through her daughter that was taken from her at birth. Rosanna Amaka does a good job with the narration that makes it captivating and believable especially when referring to significant events such as the Brixton riot and the release of Nelson Mandela. The way in which Amaka links the story of a troubled Micheal growing up in Brixton and Ngozi born in Nigeria in a low caste is so well done that we are left to wonder how all our lives are interwoven.

I loved this book! The lyrical prose got me from the start! I love a book that puts a POC-centric view and shows how radical injustice can map and change the lives of POC! This book reflects the current times and is a powerful debut novel! I look forward to more from this author!!

At first I found this a hard book to get into, but I am glad I stuck to it. It is narrated by the spirit of a woman who died in the 1800s as she follows the spirits of the two children she lost. Ngizi starts out in Africa and makes a better life for herself over the years and ends up in London, Michael grows up in Brixton in the 80s and finds it a hard life with the racism that existed there at the time.
It was a well written debut book and I loved the way the characters developed themselves, and the way the storyline interweaved between the countries and showed hard times in Africa and over here in England as well.
I hope that Rosanna Amaka will continue to write, as I look forward to reading more by her.
Thank you netgalley.

I was really looking forward to reading this book, a tale of two black people in the 80s and 90s, dealing with themes of systemic racism and class and mental health, and travelling between Nigeria and London.

Michael is a sixteen-year-old living in Brixton. When tragedy strikes, he doesn’t have much prospects or hope for the future, amidst the race riots and violence of 1980s Brixton. Ngozi is eleven when she is sent from her village in Nigeria to be a servant in a richer household; as a member of the Osu, a lower caste system, she too has limited prospects. Linked together by the narrative of one of their ancestors, a slave who died on board a ship in the early nineteenth century, this is a story of the trajectory of colonialism.

Although I didn’t fall in love with this novel, I would just like to preface this review by saying I really liked the story. Following the different perspectives of Michael and Ngozi and the various struggles they faced, it was a really interesting look at the effects of colonialism and systemic racism on two people from different backgrounds, and how oppressions intersect to cause harm. I enjoyed finding out more about both Nigeria (especially Lagos, which sounds like such an interesting city) and Brixton, because it sounds very different to the Brixton I know! Ngozi’s journey from servant to receptionist to immigrant was definitely my favourite of the two, and it’s a timely reminder that I should read more books set in Nigeria because I’ve always been so interested in the way the country’s depicted in the books I have read.

But, like I said, I didn’t love this book. The writing is good on the whole, but there were many moments where I didn’t feel convinced, where I felt like the author was stating many obvious points. There’s also an element of ‘love at first sight’, which I really didn’t buy (my absolute pet hate when it comes to romances), and the time skips in a way that really took me out of the story. Added to that is my lack of conviction about the narrator, their mutual unnamed ancestor who died on a ship - I would have loved for her to be allotted more chapters and to perhaps insert her own musings into Ngozi and Michael’s scenes but, as it is, I found her viewpoint jarring at times.

Overall, it’s a book I enjoyed but didn’t love: one that I’d award three stars, mostly on the basis of the compelling story.

An impressive and assured debut that travels around the globe and down through generations, The Book of Echoes by Rosanna Amaka is a captivating and compelling tale.
The book opens in London, 1803 on the West India docks, with the discovery of a female stowaway on a slaving ship and her tragic ending. Throughout the rest of the book we learn more about how she ended up on the ship, and her experiences on board, and how she is connected to the two protagonists of the main story.
In Brixton, 1981 we meet Michael, a teenager reeling from the death of his mother and determined to keep custody of his little sister. It's a difficult time to be Black in Britain and Michael is swept up in an incident that will profoundly shape his future, but in the present he resorts to shady ways to earn cash with unfortunate consequences.
Meanwhile in Nigeria we are introduced to Ngozi, a young girl desperate for and education who is leaving her family behind to work and attend school, whose new situation comes with dangers of its own.
Over the course of the book we follow Michael and Ngozi through difficult times and triumphs, as they are "force ripened into adulthood" to quote the author, before finally seeing their paths cross in a most satisfactory ending.
The book focuses on the struggles experienced by Black Africans, both at home and abroad, and the glacially slow pace at which the world is moving towards equality and fairness. I am in awe at the author's skill and cannot say how much the story she tells has moved me. This is a book about the journey, and for that reason I did not find the somewhat predictable ending disappointing. I found myself rooting for both these characters through their struggles and hardships, and engaging with them in a way I rarely do, a testament to the care and attention that has gone into their creation.
I read and reviewed an ARC courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher, all opinions are my own.

This was a fascinating story, switching between Nigeria and Brixton and going back into the past. There were interleaved stories that successfully linked together in the end. I really enjoyed Ngozis story of her growing up in Nigeria, which was fascinating and well described, and the difficulties faced by black families in the eighties and nineties in Brixton through police brutality and gentrification. The messages about structural racism were clear and well described, but occasionally hammered home a little too baldly, particularly through the narrator. A little editing to keep the tone of the book more similar may have helped. However, I'm glad I kept going and I really enjoyed the book in the end.

This is a lovely story, of strength and determination, with the two key roles Ngozi and Michael achieving their dreams.

When they riots in Brixton were being described it took me back to the news stories I would watch on the news as a child.

This quite a hard book to read, with the abuse and slavery, but some great historical information, which makes me grateful for the life I have.

Overall Impression: This book slightly reminded me of “Homegoing” by Yaa Gayasi, which I absolutely loved. "The Book of Echoes" spans over years and follows two very different lives, a girl in Nigeria, and a boy in London. At first, it’s hard to see how they can be connected or related, but as the story goes along, there are more similarities than differences between their stories.

It’s a very well written book and intriguing story, which allowed me to become a bit more familiar with lives in Nigeria and in Brixton in the 80s and 90s. Any book that manages to teach me something new is a valuable read.

Likes: Personally, I love stories and lives that intertwine and span years, so this book really hit a sweet spot for me. I started caring for the characters and really wanted to know what turns their lives will take. Amaka’s words create a vivid and believable world and it is fascinating that this is her debut novel. The action never dies down, but it’s masterfully tamed in a way that makes it all lyrically beautiful.

Dislikes: The two characters are followed by a spirit of a woman, the narrator, who died during the beginnings of slave trade. At times, this felt very jarring and unnecessary, and at the start it was overall confusing whose story we are following or what’s the point of introducing them. There were a few pages in the book that just did not make sense and were really unnecessary. I do understand how this ties into the story of struggle and migration, but I wanted this to be either another character whose story we follow the same way we did with Ngozi and Michael rather that the narrator, or an altogether new book, which I think would be a great read as well.

I loved the way this was written, we're given the perspective of a woman who died trying to escape from slavery as she watches over her descendants. It was so moving reading her feelings as she sees them grow and develop, her love of them, and fear for them. As a framing device I think it worked beautifully.

I also loved the people she was watching over, how they both came through tough situations and while it took a long time they achieved their dreams of making a better life for themselves. My heart bled for Ngozi during her trials, and soared for Michael when he found a way of life. The writing was brilliant and rich and I will be thinking about this book for a long time.

This was a beautifully written book and oh my goodness look at that cover - how could you resist that cover?
This is a debut novel and I wouldn't have guessed based on the excellent writing style. Sometimes I got a little lost away from the book and found my mind drifting but it wasn't long before i was back focusing on the story. Worth a read for sure!

No getting on at all well with this book and regret that I haven't finished it. Find it hard to follow and work out.