Claire's review for Blonde Roots
By Claire Duff / Spinebreakers Crew
Bernadine Evaristo was born in London to an English mother and a Nigerian father. She was the fourth of eight siblings, and was raised in Woolwich, South London. Evaristo originally trained as an actress and worked in theatre. She is the author of two novels-in-verse Lara (a story tracing the roots of a mixed-race family over 150 years, 3 continents and 7 generations) and The Emperor's Babe (the tragi-comic story of Zuleika, a girl of Sudanese parents, who grows up in Roman London 1800 years ago and who has an affair with the Roman Emperor Septimius Severus).
In the bizarre world of Blonde Roots, the black Africans are the masters and the whites are the slaves. As well as this twist. there is another: the Equator has moved so that Europe (or Europa in this tale) has the same climate as today's Africa, and Aphrika's weather is as unpredictable as Europe's. This controversial story tells the tale of Doris Scragglethorpe, a slave in Amarika.
I really liked this story, even though at times it is confusing. I liked the way Evaristo altered the names of places today very subtly, yet kept some names traditional i.e. Doris. This story gripped me as soon as I read the blurb, and I have recommended it to everyone in my family.