“Transporting.” --Entertainment Weekly
“Heart-stopping.” --Washington Post
“Eloquent.” --Boston Globe
“Wonderfully written.” --New York Times
“Elegant.” --Essence
“An indomitable heroine.” --Chicago Tribune

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 the 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.

“[A] magnificent, epic novel... Aminata Diallo is one of the great heroines of modern literature, and her story is not only heartstopping and brutal, but also one of great humanity.” --Tahmima Anam, author of A Golden Age

“Lawrence Hill’s hugely impressive historical work is completely engrossing and deserves a wide, international readership.” --Delia Jarrett Macauley, Washington Post

“[Someone Knows My Name] is a masterpiece, daring and impressive in its geographic, historical and human reach, convincing in its narrative art and detail, necessary for imagining the real beyond the traces left by history.” --Globe and Mail