In Review

08 January 2009 18:21 BST

Blonde Roots by Bernardine Evaristo

Published by Hamish Hamilton Ltd, out now, paperback, 272pp, £17.99.

Blonde Roots is a refreshing and intelligent take on a travesty that occurred in the 1800s where people from one country were taken and used as slaves by a race that thought they were privileged to do so. However, this book has an ingenious spin on the historical situation where the slaves are not African natives but actually European 'Whytes'.

Among thousands of European (Europanes), the book follows the story of Doris Scagglethorpe, stolen as a child, while out playing hide and seek with her sisters and taken to a strange land. Coming from a long line of farmers, Doris is snatched away from the Cabbage farm life she knew by a Aphrikan and forced into enslavement by Bwana, a chief of Great Ambossa, the most influential and robust country on the continent.

The story begins with the possibility of escape from the dreadful life Doris leads in Londolo, the capital of Great Ambossa. The capital is a massive city with a legendary Brixtane and even Tot Ten Ha Ma in the east. This creates a feeling of familiarity for the reader throughout the book. There is even a Mayfah, but this city is not as you may think and the Europanes lives are tough and they work hard for their masters and mistresses, waiting on their every whim.

The Europanes Christianity is forced underground due to the Aphrikans worship of animals. The women are large, and beauty and wealth is expressed by the increasing size of the Aphrikans waistline and some are even sent away to be fed. However, skinny, pale, blonde Doris has made the daring decision to escape, which if caught could have fatal repercussions.

The book is fast-paced and often leaves you in an emotional limbo. Doris continually describes the treatment the slaves receive, such as the distress caused by the instant removal of all her newborn babies to be sold. The father of each of the children even receives lashings when he refuses the advancements of his mistress.

Doris is compelled to succeed although in fear of what capture can bring. However, even after her initial escape is prevented Doris never quits dreaming of her freedom. The book is intensely thought provoking and Evaristo constantly attempts to defuse the issue of race supremacy as the most dominant feature of Doris' pain, but more the need for identity.

Blonde Roots seeks to dispel the importance of the need as an individual to understand our identities, which is affected by what we know, need and love even if that is the dark clouded drizzle and wind of England. Doris makes it clear that what she knew has shaped her understanding of life and expresses how she truly "longed for home".

The need to have freedom is a humanitarian right and Blonde Roots does not fail to make the reader understand that choice affects everything and the right to choose your own connections builds our foundations.

Orla Brady