More than a tale of historical slavery – but not to lessen the deep gouge on human history that slavery was, River Sing Me Home is a narrative on freedom. So longed for, wished for and a driving force deep within the souls of the enslaved, when freedom finally comes it takes shape in different ways. This is a deeply heart-felt motherly pursuit post-emancipation law in 1834. Although the end-of-slavery law was passed in London in 1833, the effect was not immediate. It took time for news to travel to the colonies on the Caribbean Islands of Barbados, British Guiana and Trinidad where this book is set. Cruel, manipulative owners and overseers of sugar plantations were not willing to relinquish their power and profitable exploitation so readily. This sets the scene for River Sing Me Home. Rachel is a mother and a slave that ran. Her mind is gripped by fear and her spirit is unsettled. She understands loss of family and home but has never known freedom and it’s a concept hard to grasp but she has to live with the scars. “I have seen people struggle to live after they escaped…freedom is what they wanted for so long. Freedom means stepping over the plantation boundary – but what then? It can be hard to live after freedom…I think we have known that there’s a gap between what is real and imagined…” Rachel has good reason be unsettled, her maternal spirit over-rides any commonsense. She’s driven to resolve the mysteries of her missing children – taken at various ages, sold or moved on to another part of the plantation, mere commodities to be traded in business. Eleven children in total, five alive and six more died from fever or before their first breath hit their lungs. It is this relentless pursuit that underpins River Sing me Home. Rachel searches for Micah, Mary Grace, Mercy, Cherry Jane and Thomas Augustus. Across three Caribbean islands, five different outcomes and very different ways to live in ‘freedom’. It is brutal and confronting, yet in amongst it all there are rekindled bonds and resolution, making this a hopeful book too. Highly recommended.