Someone Knows My Name: A Novel

Lawrence Hill

Nov 2008 · W. W. Norton & Company

About this ebook

Winner of the Commonwealth Writers' Prize. "Wonderfully written...populated by vivid characters and rendered in fascinating detail." —Nancy Kline, New York Times Book Review

Kidnapped from Africa as a child, Aminata Diallo is enslaved in South Carolina but escapes during the chaos of the Revolutionary War. In Manhattan she becomes a scribe for the British, recording the names of blacks who have served the King and earned their freedom in Nova Scotia. But the hardship and prejudice of the new colony prompt her to follow her heart back to Africa, then on to London, where she bears witness to the injustices of slavery and its toll on her life and a whole people. It is a story that no listener, and no reader, will ever forget.

Published in Canada as The Book of Negroes and the basis for the award-winning BET miniseries of the same name.

Ratings and reviews

I truly enjoyed every moment of this book. Such detail was put into this. It really made his characters come to life. It made me feel so many emotions like I knew these people. What African Americans had to endure was horrific but it also showed how strong we are as a whole. I would definitely recommend this book to everyone I know!

A remarkable though graphic story of a woman's journey through the slave trade. Couldn't put it down although it is often very raw and violent. August 7, 2009

Excellent story from the viewpoint of an African woman whose body was stolen by slavers but did not let them steal her self. This should be required reading in schools. Thanks to Mr Hill for putting this together so we can see where we've come from & how far we have to go.

About the author

Lawrence Hill is the author of several novels including Someone Knows My Name, which won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize and the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize and was nominated in the United States for the Huston Wright Legacy Award. In 2015 Hill was appointed to the Order of Canada “for his contributions as an author and activist who tells the stories of Canada’s black community and of women and girls in Africa.” A graduate of the Writing Seminars at The Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, he lives in Ontario, Canada.