Roots

Roots, by Alex Haley, starts with the life of Kunta Kinte, who was taken from his village in Africa to be a slave in America. The book follows Kunta Kinte’s descendants as major events in American history occur. This novel is celebrated less for the way it is written and more for the meaning behind the writing. The Revolutionary War, Civil War, Suffrage Movement and Civil Rights movement are viewed through the lives of Kunta Kinte’s descendants. The reader feels deep empathy for all the characters and shares an intimate connection with that in some ways surpasses real life relationships. It is a history book that one will want to keep reading and reading and reading.