Mark Twain wrote: Sage-brush is very fair fuel, but as a vegetable it is a distinguished failure. Nothing can abide the taste of it but the jackass and his illegitimate child, the mule.

Someone Knows My Name
by Lawrence Hill

Category:  Historical Fiction

Average Rating:  4.0

Aminata Diallo is the beguiling heroine of Lawrence Hill's SOMEONE KNOWS MY NAME. In it, Hill exquisitely imagines the tale of an eighteenth-century woman's life, spanning six decades and three continents. The fascinating story that Hill tells is a work of the soul and the imagination. Aminata is a character who will stir listeners, from her kidnapping from Africa through her journeys back and forth across the ocean.

Enslaved on a South Carolina plantation, Aminata works in the indigo fields and as a midwife. When she is bought by an entrepreneur from Charleston, she is torn from friends and family. The chaos of the Revolutionary War allows her to escape. In British-held Manhattan, she helps pen the Book of Negroes, a list of blacks rewarded for wartime service to the King with safe passage to Nova Scotia. During her travels in Canada, Sierra Leone, and England, Aminata strives for her freedom and that of her people--even when it comes at a price.

In this captivating novel, Hill portrays one woman's remarkable spirit and strength in the face of adversity, and he brings to life crucial and little-known chapters in world history.

Jeff

[2026-07-13 12:59:51]

Rating:  4

Lawrence Hill's Someone Knows My Name is a powerful and absorbing historical novel that follows an unforgettable life shaped by the horrors of slavery, resilience, and the search for identity. The story is richly detailed and emotionally engaging, making it difficult to stop listening once it gets underway. Hill does an excellent job of bringing both the historical events and the characters to life without ever losing sight of the deeply personal journey at the heart of the novel.

Adenrele Ojo delivers a satisfactory narration overall. She captures the emotional weight of the story well and gives the characters distinct voices. One aspect that occasionally pulled me out of the experience was her mispronunciation of a few common English words. Fortunately, these moments were relatively infrequent and didn't significantly detract from the audiobook. On the other hand, she handled the many African and other foreign words with confidence and natural flow. I can't speak to the accuracy of those pronunciations, but they sounded convincing and never felt awkward.

Despite the occasional pronunciation issue, this is an audiobook well worth hearing. The strength of Lawrence Hill's storytelling far outweighs the minor imperfections in the narration, resulting in a compelling and memorable listening experience. If you enjoy historical fiction with richly developed characters and emotional depth, Someone Knows My Name is an excellent choice.