Blonde Roots by Bernardine Evaristo

Blonde Roots by Bernardine Evaristo is a compelling novel with a fresh and original plot that will reel in potential readers seconds within reading the back cover, or perhaps the first few pages. The story introduces an alternate world where white Europeans "whytes" are enslaved by African blacks "blaks" and brought to the New World as well as the Great Ambossa in the continent of Aphrika, the homeland of the domineering blaks, forced to work under their harsh authority. The story is told by an English woman named Doris, who is captured at the age of 11 from her home in England and is forced to work in the household of the powerful Bwana in Great Ambossa. Doris, now in her 30s, takes the readers with her to her journey as an escaping slave. However, considering that I am in the beginning of the book, it's probably reasonable to guess that her escape plan does not work, and that she will face many consequences because of her actions.

Convinced by a note given to her from "Resistance", an anti-slavery group that rescues whyte slaves, Doris, the slave with the highest status of the household of Bwana and his children, decides to run away one night. She is not completely sure that the note is genuine, but decides to take a risk anyway, overridden with thoughts of returning to the "Motherland" after years of forced labor. However, because the book begins with this, I am doubtful that her escape plan works just the way she thinks it will, and that painful consequences will be brought upon her after her daring actions. Also, the book synopsis on the back cover speaks of a life in the "New World", which might mean that Doris will be brought there to work as someone else's slave after her punishment.

Doris is a bright, optimistic and wise character that has all the readers root for her in the story. She frequently gives the readers a peek of her past as a child slave and also her life BS, or before slavery, in England. These flashbacks build the reader's love and devotion to the narrator and therefore bind them to the story, making them read more and more to find out the loving protagonist's fate. I am hoping that Doris will achieve happiness by the end of the book, away from her cruel captors and life in the Great Ambossa or the "New World". Also, maybe reconcile with her deserted 3 children for the first time since their birth and build a new family. As impossible as it sounds, why not have some faith in a story full of hopelessness and despair?