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Blonde Roots
- Narrated by: Charlotte Beaumont, Ben Arogundade
- Length: 7 hrs and 15 mins
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Blonde Roots
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Summary
FROM THE BOOKER PRIZE-WINNING AUTHOR OF GIRL, WOMAN, OTHER
Welcome to a world turned upside down. One minute, Doris, from England, is playing hide-and-seek with her sisters in the fields behind their cottage. The next, someone puts a bag over her head and she ends up in the hold of a slave-ship sailing to the New World . . .
In this fantastically imaginative inversion of the transatlantic slave trade - in which 'whytes' are enslaved by black people - Bernardine Evaristo has created a thought-provoking satire that is as accessible and readable as it is intelligent and insightful. Blonde Roots brings the shackles and cries of long-ago barbarity uncomfortably close and raises timely questions about the society of today.
'A bold and brilliant game of counterfactual history. Evaristo keep[s] her wit and anger at a spicy simmer throughout' Daily Telegraph
'So human and real. Re-imagines past and present with refreshing humour and intelligence' Guardian
'A brilliant satire whose flashes of comedy make the underlying tragedy all the more poignant' Scotland on Sunday
LONGLISTED FOR THE ORANGE PRIZE FOR FICTION 2009
WINNER OF THE ORANGE YOUTH PANEL AWARD 2009
FINALIST FOR THE HURSTON WRIGHT LEGACY AWARD 2010
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What listeners say about Blonde Roots
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- C K Lee
- 27-09-22
A fascinating switch up
Personally, I loved this book. The world the author built was incredibly well done and it was really interesting to think about the other aspects of life that the slave trade had on society, such as the westernised standard of beauty. I loved the way to biological basis for slavery was put across in this book to really demonstrate how anyone can justify slavery if they try and find reasons.
The books ending was a bit disappointing, but the overall book was a great listen.
Anyone saying they don't really see the point in it needs to try and think about the wider implications this book is trying to make.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Miss D Srao
- 16-12-22
Superb!
Loved this book. It challenges your perception of slavery by allowing the table to be turned and for suspending privilege and then seeing how it feels for the transgressors of slavery to become the transgressed, for the oppressors to become the oppressed.
A unique and brilliant concept explored in a genuinely ground breaking way. Wish it was longer!
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- The Shevolutionist
- 28-08-21
An interesting and alternative slave experience
This author never fails to tell an interesting story. Blonde roots had me captured from the start. Cleverly told that sometimes I forgot it was being told from an alternative perspective of whites being enslaved and blacks as the slave masters. I enjoyed this book, if not slightly disappointed at the end where I hoped for what I felt was an abrupt ending.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Luke
- 16-10-22
Gripping and thought provoking
I wasn't sure how much I was enjoying this book to start but by half way through I couldn't get back to it quickly enough. The whole concept was very clever and several scenes jolted me back to what this was based on.
Well constructed and well narrated, recommended.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Cliente de Amazon
- 24-12-20
A feat
It made me laugh and cringe, and it didn't let me look away. Superb narration.
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Considered opinion
- 31-05-22
Good but felt short-changed
Great concept for a story and supported with plenty of detail - albeit making for uncomfortable reading in places. Let down somewhat in the telling by the male narrator - too laboured - I actually found it less irritating when the audio speed was increased to x1.2 for the male voice sections.
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Samantha abbott
- 07-07-22
A Must Read/Listen
Absolutely loved this.
If you're white and ever wondered how you'd feel as a slave. Read this. If you're white and haven't thought about it, then you should definitely read this book.
It's poignant, hard hitting and has speckles of humour.
Bernadine writes so wel, the whole book just flows.
Read this book
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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- Al
- 02-05-22
simply swapping the races makes you think
the simple device of swapping the races, amazingly, has a huge effect on how you understand this horendous chapter of british history. well written, the story explores many of the horrific realities of the western slave trade.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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- Amazon Customer
- 14-07-23
A important, hard book
I knew in general terms the history of the real Atlantic slave trade before reading this, but however appalling the facts, they do not pull on our emotions like stories do. This book will make you feel something of the pain of those thousands ripped from their homes and loved ones, those who lived and died never knowing freedom, all for the sake of satisfying other men's greed. It's a hard book to read, both not exactly because of what it depicts, but because of knowing that it mirrors reality so closely. However, refusing to acknowledge the past will make it less true, and we must know our past in order to make the future better. So, read it.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Amy Daneel
- 15-09-23
Should be mandatory reading
This book should be mandatory reading in every British school, colleges and university. Wow. Wow. Wow.
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