Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and author for this ARC.

I really enjoyed this book. It’s not the type I would normally read and I thought the description looked interesting. I felt it was written really well and it held my attention all the way through. The stories of the two main characters, Michael in London and Ngozi in Nigeria are told through one of their ancestors. Both characters are really likeable and you wonder how their stories will come together and this becomes clear about two thirds of the way in. The book was very descriptive and I could picture the characters and scenes in my mind. It covers slavery, racism, family relationships and for me was a very good read. I really felt for the characters who were both trying to better themselves when a lot was against them. 4 stars.

What an apt name for this book. The consequences of past events reverberate all through the lives of the characters in this book. Beautifully written even thought the subject matter is quite difficult to read. Man's inhumanity to man comes across. We can all hope for a better and more equal world.

I have to say that I loved this book. When I started reading it I was unsure. It is not my usual sort of story but I wanted to persevere and I am so glad I did.
The book tells two stories of two different lives. One is of Michael growing up in the UK and Ngozi growing up in Africa. As the story unfolds you learn about their lives and how they are connected. It has a touch of time travel about it and feels a bit spiritual.
Well worth a read.

A young black man struggles to come to terms with a devastating tragedy in 1980s England. Meanwhile, a young Nigerian woman tries to build a better life for herself, against all odds. As the pair fight against following the paths society has set for them, they’re watched over by the ghost of a woman who was murdered. A gripping, thought-provoking debut novel.

I found it quite hard to get into this book and did consider ditching it at about 15%. But I carried on and ended up enjoying the three quite different stories. The ghost narrator just pops up without any introduction and I found this a bit off-putting; I didn't get used to it and it always brought me up short and I had to go back and reread a sentence or two. It's not a device I would encourage. The Nigerian and the London stories were both well written apart from this and with a definite sense of place and culture. The ending was obvious from a long way back but I liked the way it eventually happened.

A good read, but not a great one, and I thank NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read and review an e-ARC of this title.

Exquisitely crafted, beautifully written, The Book of Echoes is a story which will stay with you.

The story is led by a slave woman, over 200 years ago snatched from her family for transport to the plantations of Jamaica, she is now destined to watch over her ancestors.

Ngozi is one of those ancestors, a young woman in Nigeria, poor, and struggling in a society where rich men hold the power. Her journey to better herself and find a new life is heart-warming and distressing in equal measure.

Michael grows up in Brixton and finds himself also struggling to escape poverty and support his family, yet gets caught up in the drugs trade and faces prison.

Gradually, the stories of Ngozi and Michael weave together, with an optimistic outlook for the future.

Highly recommended.

What a stunning, original book. From the terrible fate of slaves, to the final peace found by Michael and Ngozi, there was a lot of water to flow under a lot of bridges before this could happen - and it's still flowing. But I found this a redemptive book, because there is hope, even though it might mean confronting past horrors. Beautifully written and compelling.

The story is told by the soul of an African slave women whose spirit is roaming the earth looking for her two children that she lost when she was taken into slavery.
It took me about a third of the way through to get into this book and I found the local dialect difficult to understand
Having said that I did enjoy this book and it made me realise how little things have changed. True, slavery has been abolished but prejudices are still very much in existence today.


Thanks to NetGalley for my ARC for which I have given my unbiased review.

The story of two young people, Michael from Brixton and Ngozi from Obowi in Nigeria, as they struggle to find a place in the world. Their story is told by the spirit of a murdered slave who left one child in London and the other in her village in Nigeria. In her search for her children, she is drawn to Michael and Ngozi and narrates significant events from their lives.

Whilst it appears at first glance that the two are responsible for their choices, both good and bad, it becomes apparent that their choices are limited by the legacy. of slavery, which echo through the centuries and still have an impact in events we witness today, from economic migration to knife crime.

It takes some time to understand the role of the spirit narrator and the story is rather slow initially. Gradually the reader is drawn to the plight of these two young people battling prejudice and an economic system biased against them. Their eventual triumphs are less convincing: Michael's moment of self-enlightenment aooears from nowhere and Ngosi's business success seems too good to be true.

An important novel in terms of the issues it raises about immigrants, the emancipation of women and the continued disadvantages experienced by black people in the UK.

(I was given an advance copy by the publisher in exchange for an honest review)

A heart-rending read, this is chiefly the story of Michael and Ngozi as they grow from childhood to fully formed adults through the harsh ups and downs of life at the bottom end of society in London and Nigeria. It is beautifully told by the spirit of a woman stolen from Nigeria in the late 1700s and sold into slavery in Jamaica. She is travelling the world looking for her children, watching Michael and Ngozi as she does. Events for Michael and Ngozi do not always make easy reading. The spirit doesn't just watch, she takes you right inside the characters so the reader feels their emotions and difficulties too. You will them on not to give up even though the odds seem to be against them.
At times, the spirit also allows us glimpses into the horrors of her life.
I would recommend this to anyone who wants a romance with real substance.

Thank you to Netgalley and Random House UK for a kindle version of this book to review. This book comes out in February 2020.

This book follows Ngozi a poor girl in Nigeria and Michael, a teenager of Jamaican descent who lives in London. It is narrated by the spirit of an African woman who was captured and shipped off to be a slave 200 years earlier.

I very much enjoyed the beginning of the book that followed Michael’s hardships after his mother was murdered and Ngozi’s life in Nigeria which was profoundly sad and difficult. The writing was beautiful, although I did sometimes find it difficult to figure out who was speaking and the sudden switches when the narrator took over and spoke about her own life were a little confusing at times.

About two thirds of the way through though, I must admit that my interest started to wane. Where the story started off strongly and focused quite a bit on racial injustices and how each character was affected and survived through their hardships, it then veered into what I felt were rather more cliched areas that were distinctly less interesting to me.

Overall it was a good book and beautifully written with a premise that was interesting to me, however I was a bit disengaged by the end of it unfortunately. ⭐️⭐️⭐️ from me.

The Book of Echoes is a powerful debut novel by Rosanna Amaka, following the lives of a teenager in London, Michael, and a young woman from a poor background in Nigeria, Ngozi. The story is narrated by their shared ancestor from 200 years ago, an African woman who was kidnapped and enslaved.

If I'm honest, I struggled to get into the book initially. The lyrical writing at the start of the novel didn't sit well with me but luckily, the style changed after a while and once Ngozi's story got going, I was pulled in. The Book of Echoes is a thought-provoking novel about racial injustice and the circle of life. I'll be very interested to read future books by the author.

Many thanks to Random House UK, Transworld publishers for my review copy in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks Netgalley and the publisher. This is a lovely written book and very thought provoking. I had to read this in silence.

Brilliant, thoughtful and masterly crafted. Take time to enjoy the characters. I love the narrator and the history. Just read it!

Deeply affecting and beautifully written, The Book of Echoes is driven by the narrator, the soul of an African slave who searches the world for her offspring, both having been taken from her by force. She sees great horror, abject pain and the misery of two hundred years of slavery bearing down endlessly on the generations that came after her. The book follows teenager Michael as he comes to terms with the loss of his guardian in fiery 1980s Brixton, and similarly young Ngozi in Nigeria, who struggles to live as a poor woman in a man's world. Between the two, the reader sees the centuries of scars, holding the characters in chains long after the shackles have fallen. This is a beautiful book; I have high hopes that reading it brings an education.

Wow. I was absolutely blown away by ‘The Book Of Echoes’ by Rosanna Amaka. A beautifully written story. The voice of the slave from Nigeria carries right through the novel and gives such meaning and truth to the stories of Ngozi and Michael. This book will stay with me for a long time.

The Book of Echoes is thought-provoking and beautifully written, it tells the story of the ghost of an African slave woman and how the injustice and cruelties she endured seems to echo into her future generations.
The characters are well developed and all play an important part in the narrative. It took me a long time to read this novel as I found some of the scenes very upsetting and had to stop from time to time.
It's a powerful and honest debut which is going to stay with me for a long time.

Very intense book regarding slavery life. Very emotional and at times found it very hard to concentrate on

This book starts out well with an interesting idea: The spirit of an African slave woman narrates the experiences of her descendants over 200 years. I thought the idea intriguing and really wanted to enjoy the book.

However, I found it meandering and had trouble with the jumps from one set of characters to another. It was also written in present tense, which makes it difficult to keep attention on the story.

I can't say much more about it because apart from that beginning, very little of what I read stuck in my mind. A great idea with a scattered execution.

Thoroughly enjoyed this debut novel although some of the subjects touched on could be upsetting. Amaka weaves threads of stories over generations and continents with ease and polish. We get to know Michael and Ngozi, from different countries, both with their own troubles and difficulties but both determined to better themselves, little knowing they have more in common than they know and watched over by the 'echo'. Will certainly look out for this author in the future.