Beyond The Door Of No Return

David Diop is the author of Beyond The Door Of No Return. The translator is Sam Taylor. The historical fiction novel starts out in Paris in 1806. A botanist, Michael Adanson, lies on his deathbed trying to figure out a way to let his daughter, Aglae, know of his life in Senegal. He once pursued the daughter of a Senegalese leader after she returned from three years of slavery in the United States. He found the daughter, the beautiful woman, and he writes to his daughter about her. The story is told by the Europeans, not the Africans and it reads like an adventure story. I have never read a book anything like this before. I enjoyed the scenery and the botany and the adventure.