It takes skill and practice to write a biography about an individual where the primary sources are missing or never existed. I feel Hurston can be commended for what she has achieved but I couldn't say this is a great example of the genre.

I picked this book because it sounded fascinating, and a worthy read, learning about the experiences of Kossula/Cudio, one of the last African slaves. I appreciate how Hurston kept Cudjo’s stories in his own words and transcribed them so we hear his voice - it was very vivid.

However. This book felt very much like Cudjo’s story was one small part of an already small book. It was 19% through on my Kindle before we even got to Cudjo’s own words - the first fifth of the book was introductions and what I call academic speak. Cudjo’s stories take up maybe a third of the book, before we’re back into almost 40% of the book being academic speak again (the kind where I read and have no idea what they’ve just said), and notes and bibliography. Several points from the beginning academic section were repeated at the end. And there was a lot of dwelling on Hurston not properly citing another author’s work.

Overall, while I feel Cudjo’s voice and story were allowed to speak for themselves, it’s a shame they were overshadowed by so much academic waffle either end.

I received a free ARC copy of this via NetGalley and the publishers in return for an unbiased review. Apologies that this was so delayed.

*Disclaimer: I received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review, and I listened to the audiobook through Scribd.


This is my first book by Zora Neale Hurston, who I know is a respected and renowned biographer. It tells the story of the last surviving slave, Cudjo Lewis, and is therefore written in his dialect.

The audiobook narrator did an amazing job of capturing the dialect and Cudjo's storytelling voice. I enjoyed the way that Zora Neale Hurston inserted herself into the story at points to explain certain aspects of the story; this made it seem like Cudjo and Zora had a trusting relationship and so I trusted it more as a reader.

I understand that this is just one experience of this kind to be experienced by Africans being kidnapped from their home and being forced to work in America but it is one that is heartbreaking. Even after the slaves are freed, this story highlights that many black people never felt free of the prejudice that they faced.

Overall I would recommend this book. I learnt a lot from it but I felt that the structure really took me out of the narrative at points. The final chapters were fables or parables told by Cudjo that, while providing a lot of information about his culture and background, didn't really fit with what had been discussed previously.

3 out of 5 stars!

This is the story of one of the last slaves from Africa shipped to America in his own words. It is really difficult to rate and reduce an important story to a number of stars.

I'm still thinking about this book a lot. I have never read anything from the perspective of the person enslaved which is the most important one. Neither have I read anything about how the slaves got to the boats on the African coast before. I also loved the history and stories from the villages and it's sad how many are completely lost, unrecorded.

I was engrossed with Cudjo's story, which was greatly helped by the way the author had presented his speech, it really brought him to life. Not much is written about his time as a slave or the voyage on the Clothilde, it is more about his youth in Africa and his life in America after he was granted his freedom, both of which I found fascinating. Cudjo's story itself is short, taking up about half of the book, as the rest is a long introduction, notes and acknowledements, hence the loss of one star.