So much potential. There are so many opportunities to tell a great story, but ultimately I believe the book suffers from over-ambition. As a result, the book lacks tension, and while we know of the protagonist's anguish, we never really feel it. Additionally, the protagonist happens upon opportunities that make her story significantly different than most slaves' stories. The "good" things that happen to her make for a less believable story as they seem far too convenient or contrived. In fact, the last "good" thing to happen to the protagonist caused me practically to throw the book across the room. (I'm reading on my iPad, so that's ill-advised or I would have, really.) Perhaps the author's choosing to name the protagonist after his eldest daughter disabled him from being able to create a character with whom the readers could feel suffering.

There is great potential for themes on which the author also did not capitalize, e.g. the idea of "home," or even the theme suggested by the book's title. Unfortunately, I didn't find these themes to be fully fleshed at all.

I did learn some things about the slave trade and history of slavery about which I was unaware, which I appreciated.