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Sankofa

A Novel

by Chibundu Onuzo

Narrator Sara Powell

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Length 9 hours 2 minutes

Language English

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Bookseller recommendation

“Chibundu Onuzo's Sankofa is the story of Anna, an African British woman who never knew her father. Anna discovers clues to her African father's identity only after her mother dies. This is fortuitous. What follows as Anna acknowledges and accepts her father, a man with a vast reputation and many secrets, is the healing and melding of Anna's two identities and a new beginning. A master storyteller, Onuzo's third novel is an epic story of belonging and identity.”
— Rachel • Avid Bookshop

Bookseller recommendation

“After her mother’s death, Anna finds a diary among her possessions. The diary of Anna’s father, a man she has never known and her mother has told her little about. As Anna reads the diary of the young man who fell in love with her mother, she begins to feel that she knows him and is understandably curious to learn what happened to him. At a crossroads in her life anyway, she decides to head to his home-country in Africa to look for him. With many surprises along the way, her journey leads to finding her father and also begins the journey to finding herself. This is an excellent story of self-discovery, family relationships, and racial issues.”
— Nancy • Raven Book Store

Bookseller recommendation

“A fantastic read! I listened to this book (thanks Libro.fm), and the narration was superb! ”
— Joanne • Mystery to Me

Bookseller recommendation

“Listening to Sankofa is like sitting down for a glass (or three) of wine with a good friend while she tells you her "you won't believe what I found out about my family" story. And what a story it is.”
— Angie • The Country Bookshop

Summary

The exhilarating story of a mixed-race woman who goes in search of the African father she never knew.

After years of being a daughter, a wife, and a mother, Anna finally has the time to wonder who she really is. But the only person who can tell her—her mother, the only parent who raised her—is dead.

Searching through her mother's belongings one day, Anna uncovers a few clues about her father, whom she never knew. Student diaries chronicle his involvement in radical politics in 1970s London, involvement that eventually led him to return to Africa, where he became the president—some would say dictator—of a small nation in West Africa. And he is still alive.

When Anna decides to track her father down, a journey begins that is disarmingly moving, funny, and fascinating. It raises universal questions of race and belonging, the overseas experience for the African diaspora, and the search for a family's hidden roots. Masterful in its examination of freedom, prejudice, and personal and public inheritance, Sankofa is a story for anyone who has ever gone looking for a clear identity or home and found something more complex in its place.

Fiction Fiction - Literary