Ama, by Manu Herbstein
Picador Africa, 2005. 374 pages.
To call Manu Herbstein’s Ama ambitious would be to belittle the fact that the author has, in many respects, succeeded in creating a grand narrative of the Atlantic slave trade that spans kingdoms, nations, and continents.
Read the full review here.
We are delighted to have selected Manu Herbstein’s Ama: A Story of the Atlantic Slave Trade for the first review of FictionThatMatters.org.
Published by Picador Africa in 2005, Ama won Herbstein the Commonwealth Prize for best first novel.
Ama depicts the story of a young woman from a northern tribe of present-day Ghana who is taken into the slave trade of the Asante kingdom.
The novel will receive our first review for a number of reasons. First, it deals directly with one of the greatest human rights violations in human history. Second, Ama has escaped serious critical review in the United States. Third, though less relevant, the author lives in the region that he writes about, offering some measure of authenticity.
Check back for the review in the next few weeks.
