Beyond the Door of No Return

A Novel

By: David Diop, Sam Taylor - translator

Narrated by: Dion Graham, Mark Bramhall, Adenrele Ojo, Caroline Hewitt

"Stunningly realized . . . Exquisite . . . A spellbinding novel about the high price of betrayal―of others, and oneself."―Maaza Mengiste, author of The Shadow King, shortlisted for the Booker Prize

One of the Los Angeles Times's most anticipated books of the fall

The thrilling and deeply moving new novel by David Diop, winner of the International Booker Prize.

Paris, 1806. The renowned botanist Michel Adanson lies on his deathbed, the masterwork to which he dedicated his life still incomplete. As he expires, the last word to escape his lips is a woman’s name: Maram.

The key to this mysterious woman’s identity is Adanson’s unpublished memoir of the years he spent in Senegal, concealed in a secret compartment in a chest of drawers. Therein lies a story as fantastical as it is tragic: Maram, it turns out, is none other than the fabled revenant. A young woman of noble birth from the kingdom of Waalo, Maram was sold into slavery but managed to escape from the Island of Gorée―a major embarkation point of the transatlantic slave trade―to a small village hidden in the forest. While on a research expedition in West Africa as a young man, Adanson hears the story of the revenant and becomes obsessed with finding her. Accompanied by his guide, he ventures deep into the Senegalese bush on a journey that reveals not only the savagery of the French colonial occupation but also the unlikely transports of the human heart.

Written with sensitivity and narrative flair, David Diop’s Beyond the Door of No Return is a love story like few others. Drawing on the richness and lyricism of Senegal’s oral traditions, Diop has constructed a historical epic of the highest order.

©2021 by Éditions du Seuil (P)2023 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved. Translation © 2023 by Sam Taylor.

Critic reviews

“Diop's love story/epic adventure, written with compassion and skill, is dramatized by a talented team of narrators. Dion Graham portrays Michel Adanson, a French Enlightenment-era botanist; Mark Bramhall, Adenrele Ojo, and Caroline Hewitt portray different members of his family and some friends.… The Senegalese characters are adeptly portrayed by Graham.… Maram Seck, a young woman of noble birth from the kingdom of Waalo…is voiced with extraordinary sensuality by Ojo. Together, the narrators deliver a historical epic of the highest order, based on the richness and lyricism of Senegal's Waalo language rhythms and oral storytelling traditions.”—AudioFile Magazine, Earphones Award Winner

“The story begins in 1806 Paris, as narrator Mark Bramhall conveys the regret running through dying French botanist Michel Adanson's opening words. Bramhall then passes the tale to Caroline Hewitt, who superbly delivers the reactions of Adanson's daughter Aglae as she grieves her father's death and finds a secret journal detailing his last wishes.… Bramhall piercingly voices Adanson's helpless rage as he rationalizes his decision to relinquish his dream of being with Maram and marry a French woman instead. Adenrele Ojo's intense, whispery performance of Maram's story is spellbinding, and Dion Graham shines as Adanson's horrified guide and friend Ndiek. A compelling performance of Diop's National Book Award-shortlisted novel in translation.”—Library Journal

"A mesmerizing tale . . . Less brutal than Diop’s International Booker Prize-winning At Night All Blood is Black (2020) but no less powerful . . . With its sumptuous physical descriptions, shades of language, and smooth overlap of truth and invention, this is masterful storytelling. The ease with which the narratives (including Aglaé’s) unfold belies the emotional force they gather."—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

Parts of story were fascinating but not so the ending

The character of miram was well done. But if she was a revanent the story could have gone in a much more satisfying direction.

Hard to follow, lots of dead ends (excuse pun)

It was not about botany. It was kind of about love. I appreciated the perspective of slavery. There were a lot of loose ends and tangents (wedding?) and if I’d been reading the book I’d have had to reference back to earlier scenes to make sense of later parts (buried something by a tree?). I was hoping to find an explanation of the ending online because I finished it feeling quite confused.

A lovely love story

Slow to get started but it unfolded nicely. The voice of Maram irritated me but otherwise it was a good performance

It was so boring.

What as the point? I read it to the end and it never got better