Beyond the Door of No Return by David Diop

Prais, 1806.

The renowned botanist Michel Adanson is dying.

His last word is a woman's name: Maram.

But who was she?

Searching for the answer, Adanson's 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

'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

'It's hard to imagine a more gripping or fertile subject', Guardian

Paperback

Language: English
Extent: 256
Publish Date: 29 Aug 2024
ISBN: 9781782278412
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Publisher: Pushkin Press
Imprint: Pushkin Press