Harare Review of Books

257 pages.

Published Sept 19, 2023 (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)

Fiction.

This is a story about slavery in the 18th century from an unexpected angle: Diop introduces us to a French botanist through his relationship with his daughter. He has been distant for much of her life, but when he dies, he leaves her a folder in which he has recorded a story from his past, from a trip to Senegal.

Beyond the Door of No Return explores one white man’s curiosity and destructive passion for a Black woman—the weight of his colonial heritage against her position as an object, as colonial property. It’s barely a love story—perhaps only in his overwhelming desire to possess her, which is an interesting juxtaposition against the French colonial belief in its own right to possession. In fact, Maram’s sin is her beauty, as her life is ruined by the lust of the men around her. Because of Diop’s chosen and curious perspective, Maram’s voice in this story is conspicuously silent—itself an important commentary.

A book that gives the reader much to think about, written in elevated and formal literary language, Beyond the Door of No Return is heady and vivid, and would be an unalloyed pleasure were it not for the bleak story at the centre. Still, an excellent read.

Thank you to Farrar, Straus and Giroux and to NetGalley for this ARC.