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Every so often, I like to dabble in poetry. I say ‘dabble’ because, if I’m honest, it’s not my strongest area.
Still, I think it’s something every writer should have a crack at; poetry give you a sense of timing and feel for conciseness that can only help improve your writing in general (even though you may not be aware of it).
Anyway, while ‘having a crack at it’ I came up with Abigail’s Garden, which I thought I’d share.
This isn’t really a book review, as I read Blonde Roots a few years ago and had cause to revisit it again recently for some background reading on slavery. I’d quite forgotten what a little gem this book is.
It’s a kind of ‘alternate history’ novel that tells the story of a young girl taken from her home to work the plantations in a foreign land. But in a rather clever twist to history as we know it, Ms Evaristo has spun things around. In her world of the nineteenth century, it is the Africans who are kidnapping Europeans by the thousand and transporting them to work their farms and plantations.
Mind-blowing stuff.
The story is beautifully written and told without frills or compromise. After a while you forget that this isn’t the world as we know it, but still remain struck at the injustice and cruelty of the slave trade and how it demeans both the sufferers who endure it and the slavers who profit from it.
A great book which I’m glad to have rediscovered.