Sankofa: A Novel by Chibundu Onuzo
A REESE'S BOOK CLUB PICK | AN AMAZON BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR
“A beautiful exploration of the often complex parameters of freedom, prejudice, and individual sense of self. Chibundu Onuzo has written a captivating story about a mixed-race British woman who goes in search of the West African father she never knew . . . [A] beautiful book about a woman brave enough to discover her true identity.” —Reese Witherspoon
“Onuzo’s sneakily breezy, highly entertaining novel leaves the reader rethinking familiar narratives of colonization, inheritance and liberation.” —The New York Times Book Review
Named a Best Book of the Month by Entertainment Weekly, Harper's Bazaar, and Time • Named a Most Anticipated Book of the Month by Goodreads, PopSugar, PureWow, LitHub, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, and Buzzfeed
A woman wondering who she really is goes in search of a father she never knew—only to find something far more complicated than she ever expected—in this “stirring narrative about family, our capacity to change and the need to belong” (Time).
Anna is at a stage of her life when she's beginning to wonder who she really is. In her 40s, she has separated from her husband, her daughter is all grown up, and her mother—the only parent who raised her—is dead.
Searching through her mother's belongings one day, Anna finds clues about the African father she never knew. His student diaries chronicle his involvement in radical politics in 1970s London. Anna discovers that he eventually became the president—some would say dictator—of a small nation in West Africa. And he is still alive...
When Anna decides to track her father down, a journey begins that is disarmingly moving, funny, and fascinating. Like the metaphorical bird that gives the novel its name, Sankofa expresses the importance of reaching back to knowledge gained in the past and bringing it into the present to address universal questions of race and belonging, the overseas experience for the African diaspora, and the search for a family's hidden roots.
 
Examining freedom, prejudice, and personal and public inheritance, Sankofa is a story for anyone who has ever gone looking for a clear identity or home, and found something more complex in its place.
Amazon.com Review
An Amazon Best Book of October 2021: With wit, humor, and heart, Onuzo spins a page-turner centered on a woman in search of her past. In her late 40s, confronted with the death of her mother and the potential end of her marriage, Anna finds herself increasingly curious about who she is as a mother, a daughter, and a mixed race woman living in London. When she discovers the diary of the father she never met, she yearns to meet him. The twist? He was the president of a country in Africa—determined to liberate and bring prosperity to the people, no matter the cost. Cue the trip of a lifetime. But it’s not exactly what she had imagined, and it will forever alter her identity. Taking on questions of race, belonging and heritage, Onuzo writes with gusto and beautifully illuminates what Sankofa means: “a mythical bird…it flies forward with its head facing back.” —Al Woodworth, Amazon Editor
Review
TODAY, 1 of 10 Books to Read This Holiday Season
Essence, A Best New Winter Read
A Time Best Book of the Year
An Amazon Best Book of the Year
An Entertainment Weekly Must Read of the Month
“Onuzo, who was born in Lagos and lives in London, brings this fictional country and its ex-dictator to life with economy, precision and satirical bite . . . Part of the novel’s delight lies in Onuzo’s paralleling of stories: Francis Aggrey’s political coming-of-age, documented through excerpts from his journal, runs alongside Anna’s own transformation from suburban housewife to global citizen . . . With her anagrammatic take on the experience of the African diaspora, Onuzo’s sneakily breezy, highly entertaining novel leaves the reader rethinking familiar narratives of colonization, inheritance and liberation.” —Bliss Broyard, The New York Times Book Review
"A stark, beautifully and concisely written narrative about a woman who has lost her mother, split up from her husband and dealt with the growing up of her only daughter who decides to unpack her past in more ways than one." —Good Morning America