Beyond the Door of No Return

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A gripping, galloping narrative that challenges perceptions to the very last page, Marie Claire David Diop has opened up a new way of thinking about the eighteenth century and its hideous cruelties, Abdulrazak Gurnah, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature Its hard to imagine a more gripping or fertile subject, Guardian_____ Prais, 1806. The renowned botanist Michel Adanson is dying. His last word is a womans name: Maram. But who was sheSearching for the answer, Adansons daughter discovers a journal of his youthful travels in Senegal, which tells a story of wild adventure and impossible desires. It reveals how he heard of a young woman sold into slavery who did the impossible and returned. How he became obsessed with finding her, whatever the cost. And how a man who longed to solve the mysteries of natural instead found himself grappling with the impulses of the heart.

Reviews

'Diop explores the cruelties of colonialism in a powerful story of love destroyed' - Sunday Times, Historical Fiction Pick of the Month

'A compelling romantic adventure... Intricately layered, enfolding stories within stories, Beyond the Door of No Return is many things at once: mystery, autobiography, epistolary, romance, adventure, confession. Through an act of remembrance, Diop seeks to build a repository of lives and histories lost to the slave trade' - Financial Times

'Stunningly realized and written in exquisite prose, Beyond the Door of No Return is a love story, an adventure tale, and an unflinching examination of the unexpected ways that colonialism and greed ravaged everyone it touched, European and African. It is above all else, a spellbinding novel about the high price of betrayal-of others, and oneself' - Maaza Mengiste, Booker Prize-shortlisted author of The Shadow King

'A hypnotic, powerful historical novel in which stories nest within one another like dolls... In less skilled hands, the novels structure would not work... But the opposite happens here. In a few vivid brush strokes, Diop brings to life not only Adanson, but also the ways in which his dreams, loves and losses shaped the lives of those around him. It all coheres mesmerizingly' - New York Times

'Does a masterful job of showing up the racist brutalities of the slave trade and its associated cruelties and hypocrisies... and wraps it all up in a gripping, galloping narrative that challenges perceptions to the very last page' - Marie Claire

Author Bio

DAVID DIOP was born in Paris in 1966 and grew up in Senegal. He now lives in France, where he is a professor of Eighteenth Century Literature at the University of Pau. Davids second novel, At Night All Blood is Black, has been translated into more than 30 languages, winning the International Booker Prize and the LA Times Book Prize, as well as major prizes in France, Italy, the Netherlands and Switzerland, and was chosen by Barack Obama as one of his summer reads. Beyond the Door of No Return was longlisted for the Goncourt Prize, has sold over 120,000 copies in France, and was shortlisted for the National Book Award in the US.SAM TAYLOR is a translator, novelist and journalist. He is the author of four novels and the award-winning translator of more than 60 books from French, including Laurent Binets HHhH, Lela Slimanis Lullaby, and Hubert Mingarellis A Meal in Winter.