River Sing Me Home

Set in the Caribbean islands of Barbados, British Guiana and Trinidad in 1834 just after the declaration of the abolition of slavery, this is the story of one woman’s journey to find her children who were so cruelly taken from her.

I enjoyed this moving story of love and hope set amidst the brutality and inhumanity of the time of the slave trade. The research gone into putting this tale together is excellent. It’s well written and the descriptions of the various backdrops are very vivid. It is quite a slow burner, though, and I found the story somewhat meandering as we travel alongside the main character during her search for her family. A little like the River Demerara the characters are following throughout some of their plight. show more Overall, however, it’s a gripping and enlightening read about a disgraceful part of the world’s history, a worthy debut. It’s a story that needs to be told. A journey of education and illumination. show less

This is one of the first books I’ve read in 2023 and I’ve no doubt I won’t read another as achingly beautiful – and brutal - this year.
Author Eleanor Shearer takes us on a journey for thousands of kilometres around the Caribbean, a journey inspired by her memories of visiting the island of St Lucia when she was just 11.
It’s the story of Rachel, a slave in the 1830s on a sugarcane plantation. Like most female slaves she became pregnant many times. And like all slaves who became mothers, she turned her head when a baby was born, refusing to meet its eyes because she knew loss was the only certainty in her life.
Rachel flees the plantation and begins a year-long journey to try to track down the sons and daughters stolen from her. show more It’s a tender tale of courage and loss, of love and fear.
Most importantly, as the author says, it’s a story that’s not afraid to confront the worst horrors of slavery and colonialism, but at its heart it’s a story about freedom and, most importantly, love. show less

Haunting and painfully beautiful. Hope hurts. A mother flees the plantation where she is still essentially enslaved despite slavery legally "ending" in the Caribbean. She is in search of her children who were torn from her over the years, having been sold to other enslavers. She had 11 children in all, but only five lived long enough to be sold away from her. This is an amazing tale of a mother's journey to find her children and make sure they know her love. It is about how everyone finds freedom a little differently, and about the brutal hope that lives on if you can make peace with the pain that comes with it.

Wow. This was breathtaking. Once again, I am amazed by this being a debut novel. Shearer brings such nuance and impressive writing, that it is hard to believe this is the first one she has written - it is just so well done.

When Rachel, on her plantation in Barbados, learns of her freedom she is ecstatic. Until she realizes that this freedom is yet another name for captivity. And so, she runs. Where and why, she initially doesn’t know. But then she realizes - she has to find her children. As a mother, I cannot fathom the depths of Rachel’s pain - the amount of children she had and then the five that were sold. This is the story of Rachel learning who she is outside of captivity, while also reaching into her past to find her missing show more children. It is redemptive and utterly beautiful. I cannot recommend enough. show less

This unique novel combines adventure with the violent history of slavery in the Caribbean, AFTER it was officially abolished by Great Britain in 1834. Protagonist Rachel escapes from a sugar plantation in Barbados and travels to British Guyana and Trinidad to seek the grown children who were sold away from her. The remarkable journey introduces us to her fellow travelers and to Rachel's helpers, which include escaped enslaved plantation workers and indigenous people who come together to create farms to support themselves. The abusive treatment at the hands of white plantation owners and the physically destructive labor of cutting cane in unrelenting heat makes Rachel's quest all the more remarkable. The reunions are not always joyous, show more but she is truly a hero mother for the ages. show less

What an amazing story of family and perseverance. Rachel, a slave in Barbados, had all of her children taken through the years and sold away. She found a way to go searching to British Guiana and Trinidad to try and find them in 1834-1835. This story was heartbreaking, uplifting and every emotion in between. The debut novel by Eleanor Shearer was beautifully written. I felt like I was with Rachel on the sea, in the towns, and experiencing the forests. I highly recommend this book.

I didn’t have a strong emotional reaction to the book, but there was still a lot to engage with. I was especially struck, again and again, by how complicated her depiction of “freedom” was. Shearer doesn’t settle for a tidy narrative of emancipation; instead, she repeatedly pulls at the threads, showing all the ways freedom was conditional, compromised, even challenging. Having left the plantation, Rachel still has the burdens of strenuous labor, inhuman power structures, etc—in addition to the new challenge of seeking her own employment. The contrasts between forced labor and chosen work are clear, but the analogues are also never far from view.

Those were the things that kept the book interesting, even when the narrative arc show more began to feel a little formulaic. The rolling journey from one child’s story to the next, to the next, etc—starts off strong, but settles into a rhythm that somewhat lost my interest. As for the writing itself, while there was nothing wrong with it, I rarely found much to connect with in it. I suppose I might not have minded a bit more intensity, or something.

Still, I do really respect the complexity and depth of Shearer’s depiction of the time & place. Post-emancipation life isn’t cast as a triumph so much as a formidable, ambiguous challenge. There were times when it reminded me a little of The Warmth of Other Suns—less in tone than in the sense of what freedom does and doesn’t guarantee. That’s good to be reminded of. show less