Cover of Feeding the Ghosts

Feeding the Ghosts

Inspired by a true story, this suspenseful and deeply moving novel chronicles an incident of courage and rebellion that took place aboard a disease-riddled slave ship returning from Africa. It was called Zong, and when disease threatens to infect all aboard, the ship's captain orders his crew to seize the sick men, women, and children and throw them into the sea. But one female slave, Mintah, survives drowning and secretly climbs back onto the ship. From her hiding place, she attempts to rouse the remaining captives to rebel against the killings, becoming a dangerous force on the ship — a force which is reckoned with in a shocking court case. Powerful and poetic, Feeding the Ghosts is an unforgettable testimony to the struggle against oblivion and a reminder about history overlooked and truth distorted.

Audience
adult
Length
medium · 244 pages

Click a tag to see books like this one that share it. Point at it (on a phone, tap it) for less of it instead.

Read it? Sign in to help tag it.

Liked Feeding the Ghosts? Here’s where I’d start.

These suit anyone who liked Feeding the Ghosts. Sign in and mark a few books for picks shaped around your own taste.

  1. Dancing in the Dark Shares historical fiction, fiction, race
  2. Unconfessed Shares historical fiction, slavery, fiction
  3. Song of Slaves in the Desert Shares historical fiction, slavery, Africa
  4. The Story of the Cannibal Woman Shares fiction

“People who read Feeding the Ghosts tend to reach for these next.”

  1. David's Story
  2. The Cambridge Companion to Gothic Fiction
  3. Negro with a Hat: The Rise and Fall of Marcus Garvey and His Dream of Mother Africa
  4. An Image of Africa

“If you want more of the same (historical fiction about slavery), start with these.”

  1. Sweet Song
  2. The Prisoner of Paradise
  3. Master of Falconhurst
  4. Sacred Hunger

“If it was the slavery that hooked you, try one of these.”

  1. The Eden Hunter
  2. Homegoing
  3. Amistad
  4. The Women of Magnolia

“These start from a similar idea, even if they go somewhere else with it.”

  1. The Amistad Rebellion: An Atlantic Odyssey of Slavery and Freedom
  2. Chill
  3. The Black Ship
  4. The Mary Celeste: An Unsolved Mystery from History