In this expansive novel that intertwines magical realism with urgent African history and tradition, Amanishakhete (author of the LaTonya series) takes readers
on a rich, surprising journey through the realms of light and darkness, across continents, realms, the African diaspora, and billions of years. At the tale’s heart is Prince Ndanga-Njinga, an enslaved prince executed in 1634, and his mother, Shandake Aminata, whose stories are woven with the universal truth of Semperian, the all-knowing creator spirit. The novel’s present finds that Source Omnipotent sending a daughter to Earth, specifically to the cursed Alabama port town of Baldwin, in the early 20th century. Her mission: to halt the rise of the third dark realm, led by the dark lord Apollyon Diabolus Fallen 17.
Amanishakhete’s sense of history and the sacredness of Africa powers this literary fantasy, as the story digs into the dawn of the slave trade, the founding of Baldwin, and how key “Towners,” facing a smallpox epidemic in the 17th century, forged a vicious Blood Covenant involving sacrifices every 17 years, leading to “increased hell on Earth in the coming centuries.” The material is heady and at times demanding, as twin daughters, one embodying good and the other evil, clash from the moment of conception until the fateful solstice blood moon of 1925, when only one can emerge victorious, either releasing or destroying the tortured soul of the prince.
The novel pulses with pained and mythic imagery like the Hanging Tree (where Baldwin’s residents celebrated “the first African hung in early Alabama”), and there’s aching power in its central metaphor of Towners achieving immortality from “the blood of slain and deceased Africans.” For all the invented history and spiritual elements, including journeys into dark realms and appearances from Lucifer and Satan (or Satana), the narrative moves briskly, at least after some heady introductory material. Earthly scenes edge toward the unsettling—with blood and wombs, snakes and spirits and creatures like a clondike—or the hopeful, as Amanishakhete powerfully emphasizes love, community, and ancestral memory.
Takeaway: Literary fantasy of African myth, blood, and the secret history of an Alabama town.
Comparable Titles: Amos Tutuola’s My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, Tomi Adeyemi’s Children of Blood and Bone.
Print Date: 05/27/2024
Goodreads:
Wrong Daughter was filled with plots and twists that had me saying, “Wow!” A suspenseful read that will have you turning the pages to see what will happen next. I took the book to read on my December cruise and I’m glad that I did because we had a couple of sea days that were best for curling up with a good book. The story was very thought proving and had me taking time to stop a while to allow my imagination to run its course at the time and place of the happenings. Amani Shakhete is a storyteller who knows how to weave amazing detail about the lives of her characters and places. I won’t give any spoilers but just want to say read the book. It will keep you enthralled and at times mesmerized.
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