This is an important book, I appreciate its genius, I’m glad I read it and I think everyone else should too, but it’s difficult to say I enjoyed it. It may be the most emotionally draining book I’ve ever read.

Running through the book is a ghost story about the spirit of a murdered child who comes back to demand the love she thinks she’s been denied, but it’s much more than that. The main story is slowly revealed through a tangle of flashbacks, showing the unremitting, dehumanising horror of slavery, which is so all consuming that one person cannot live through it unbroken. It takes the generosity and love of the whole community to redeem things at the end.

It’s a beautifully written book; every page is poetry and the characters are wonderful. This is the second Toni Morrison book I’ve read, and I will certainly read more.