Synopses & Reviews
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 moving and hopeful novel of self-discovery for readers of An American Marriage.
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.
Review
“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
Review
“In Bamana, a fictionalized West African country, Onuzo is probably at her narrative best. We... find ourselves in a setting that fires up the senses and offers up an opportunity for us to get to know Anna better... Sankofa means not only to retrieve but also to do so in the spirit of taking something good from the past to better the future. Like her protagonist, the writer Onuzo boldly attempts this in her new novel.” Angela Ajayi, Minneapolis Star Tribune
Review
“The slick pacing and unpredictable developments — especially in the depiction of Anna’s enigmatic father — keep the reader alert right up to the novel’s exhilarating ending... Onuzo lifts the narrative into an entirely unexpected space. She shows that the healing of fractures and a desire for wholeness can be achieved in the most unexpected of places.” Michael Donkar, The Guardian
Review
“Chibundu Onuzo offers a stirring narrative about family, our capacity to change and the need to belong.” Annabel Gutterman, TIME
About the Author
Chibundu Onuzo was born in Lagos, Nigeria and lives in London. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and regular contributor to The Guardian, she is the winner of a Betty Trask Award, has been shortlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize, the Commonwealth Book Prize, and the RSL Encore Award, and has been longlisted for the Desmond Elliott Prize and Etisalat Literature Prize. She is the author of Welcome to Lagos, and Sankofa is her third novel.