Shortlisted for Samuel Johnson Prize 2003 and BBC Four Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction 2003.

'This is a book of quite extraordinary power and beauty. Aminatta Forna has excavated not only her memory but the hidden recesses of the heart' FERGAL KEANE 'An extraordinary and gripping story... Aminatta Forna's book glows with compassion. A modern classic, of which her courageous father would have been proud' PETER GODWIN, author of Mukiwa 'An engrossing account of pain, love and discovery that had the capacity not only to make me understand but also to move me to tears' -- GILLIAN SLOVO, author of Every Secret Thing 'I had tears in my eyes almost the whole way through, although it is the least sentimental of books... Aminatta Forna manages, quite brilliantly, to evoke not only all the honour and pity that is in her family's story, but its beauty and tenderness too' -- KATIE HICKMAN, author of Daughters of Britannia

Aminatta Forna is a journalist, broadcaster and TV presenter. As an impressive speaker she has won several awards and one of her programmes on foreign adoption promoted a change in the law. She has written Mother of All Myths, a political, social and philosophical study of motherhood, and has also contributed to Itzin's Pornography: Women, Violence and Civil Liberties (OUP) and Conversations with Maya Angelou (Virago).