Barracoon by Zora Neale Hurston is one of our Top Ten Audiobooks of 2018. This never-before-published audiobook, narrated by Robin Miles, tells the true story of one of the last known survivors of the Atlantic slave trade—abducted from Africa on the last “Black Cargo” ship to arrive in the United States.
In 1927, Zora Neale Hurston went to Plateau, Alabama, just outside Mobile, to interview eighty-six-year-old Cudjo Lewis, and in 1931, Hurston returned to talk in depth with Cudjo about the details of his life. Based on those interviews, featuring Cudjo’s unique vernacular, and written from Hurston’s perspective, Barracoon brilliantly illuminates the tragedy of slavery and of one life forever defined by it.
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[pb_blockquote author=”Clara, Bookshop Santa Cruz”]Barracoon would be a significant document were it only about Cudjo (Kossola) Lewis, the last survivor of the last recorded slave ship to the US. His memories, recounted orally, preserve a trans-atlantic history that has long-been suppressed. But Barracoon is also a story about Zora Neale Hurston, the Harlem Renaissance, and the reclamation of African-American folklore. Woven throughout Hurston and Lewis’ conversations is a yearning for roots and a fight for identity.[/pb_blockquote]
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Find your next listen on our playlist of the Top 25 Bestselling Audiobooks of 2018.