Khadijah Roberts-Abdullah has narrated 3 audiobooks on Listento.it by 3 authors, with an average listener rating of 4.5★ across 343 ratings. The most-rated is The Book of Negroes.
The Book of Negroes
Summary
Abducted as an 11-year-old child from her village in West Africa and forced to walk for months to the sea in a coffle - a string of slaves - Aminata Diallo is sent to live as a slave in South Carolina. But years later she forges her way to freedom, serving the British in the Revolutionary War and registering her name in the historic Book of Negroes. This book, an actual document, provides a short but immensely revealing record of freed loyalist slaves who requested permission to leave the United States for resettlement in Nova Scotia, only to find that the haven they sought was steeped in an oppression all its own. Aminata's eventual return to Sierra Leone - passing ships carrying thousands of slaves bound for America - is an engrossing account of an obscure but important chapter in history that saw 1,200 former slaves embark on a harrowing back-to-Africa odyssey. Lawrence Hill is a master at transforming the neglected corners of history into brilliant imaginings, as engaging and revealing as only the best historical fiction can be. A sweeping story that transports the listener from a tribal African village to a plantation in the Southern United States, from the teeming Halifax docks to the manor houses of London, The Book of Negroes introduces one of the strongest female characters in recent Canadian fiction, one who cuts a swath through a world hostile to her colour and her sex.
©2007 Lawrence Hill Creative Services, Inc. (P)2016 Jody Colero for Silent Joe Inc
The Second Life of Samuel Tyne
Summary
Haunting and atmospheric, this debut novel portrays the heartbreak, hardship, and moments of surprising grace in the life of a man struggling to realize his destiny. A young man of astonishing promise when he emigrated from Ghana in 1955, Samuel Tyne was determined to accomplish great things. Fifteen long years later, he’s an insignificant government employee who hates his job when he unexpectedly inherits his uncle’s crumbling mansion in Aster, Alberta. Despite his wife’s resistance and the sullen complaints of his 13-year-old twin daughters, Samuel quits his job and moves his family to the town. For here, he believes, is that fabled second chance, and he is determined not to fail again. At first, Aster seems perfect - to Samuel, the formerly all-black town represents the return to a communal, idyllic way of life. But he soon discovers the town’s problems: a history of in-fighting, a strict town council, and a series of mysterious fires that put all the townsfolk on edge. When his daughters cease speaking and refuse to explain their increasingly strange behavior, Samuel turns more and more to the refuge of his electronics shop. As his ambitions intensify, the life he has struggled so hard to improve begins to disintegrate around him, and a dark current of menace in the town is turned upon the Tyne family.
©2004 Esi Edugyan (P)2019 Penguin Random House Canada
Into the Abyss
Summary
We cannot know how to fix a problem until we understand its causes. But even for some of the most common mental health problems, three specialists might offer you three completely different treatments. As a cognitive neuropsychiatrist, Professor Anthony David brings together many fields of study, from social and cognitive psychology to neurology. The key for each patient might be anything from a traumatic memory to a chemical imbalance, an unhealthy way of thinking or a hidden tumour. Patrick believes he is dead; Jennifer's schizophrenia medication seems to bring on the symptoms of Parkinson's; Emma is in a coma - or is she just refusing to respond? These are the fascinating case studies that have driven the most startling insights in Anthony's 40-year career studying illnesses at the edge of human understanding.
©2020 Anthony David (P)2019 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.