Joel Sannes

As a story, Raines’ book is a mystery and a thriller. The mystery of the impudent journey from Alabama to Africa to defy the law to bring back a ship of slaves, and the subsequent attempt to destroy the evidence, weaves with the detective story of Raines’ and other’s efforts to locate the Clotilda. The background treatment of the history, the present, and the future of Africa Town is a down on their luck story of survivorship against the odds. A trip back to Benin is a travel story that wove into a theme of reconciliation in Alabama and America. This book has so many aspects to it and left me with a feeling of a great reward for having come across it and enjoying every page (listening) to it.