This is narrated by the author, Dionne Brand, with the afterward also read by its author, Saidiya Hartman.

This acts as a beautiful and amazing exploration of the Black Diaspora. How no matter where in the Diaspora you are or are from, we're all here because our ancestors walked through the Door of No Return. I've read this decades ago and couldn't resist the option of listening to this as a new audiobook. What w delightful way to make this crucial discussion even more accessible for those of us of the Diaspora.

This uses historical records, memoirs, etc. to recreate this experience, the trauma it wrought, and how that informs how we see and think of ourselves. It's so much more than this. It's almost a blending of art and history. In which many of the historical records that document this time period are scanty, but this map helps us find our way to who we are now.

This focused on and is tied in with the authors travels. I am a Black American who lived for a decade in Canada, and her observations about how Blackness is treated here are profound. I have so much more experience to bring with me to this reread. My experience is richer for it.

Thank you to Dionne Brand, Brilliance Audio, and NetGalley for the opportunity to listen to and review this audiobook. All opinions and viewpoints expressed in this review are my own.

I’ve heard a lot about this author’s writing so I was very excited to read my first book by this author and listen to the audiobook of A Map to the Door of No Return: Notes on Belonging by Dionne Brand. Brand narrates and it’s great to listen to her recite her own words. This book was originally published in 2001 and still feels relevant today. Brand shares her experiences from her childhood in the Caribbean to living in Canada and African ancestry and the connection to place and history. It was interesting to read about the places in Toronto I’ve been to before like the Danforth. This line stood out to me: “writing is an open conversation”. I really enjoyed this book and I’m very curious to read more of this author’s work now.

Brand has a way with words and she uses them here to examine a relationship, a longing for, a self, an identity that is linked yet separated from her ancestors' home. I really enjoy how she uses various map descriptions and literature that also looks at belonging or as she says here unbelonging.

So much keeps us bonded to Africa, the history we share, the cultural practices that were kept and yet there is so much that keeps us apart.

Hauntingly beautiful, heartbreaking, and insightful. A beautiful genre defying book and a great audiobook read by the author. I may have to re-read in print/Kindle so that I can take notes properly.