Quarterly Let's read & discuss "Roots" by Alex Haley

In addition to our monthly classics, we will be meeting quarterly to discuss longer classic books.

Roots: The Saga of an American Family is a 1976 novel written by Alex Haley. It tells the story of Kunta Kinte, an 18th-century Mandinka, captured as an adolescent, and transported to North America. It explores his life and those of his descendants in the United States, down to Haley. The novel was adapted as a television miniseries, "Roots" (1977). The novel spent forty-six weeks on The New York Times Best Seller list, including twenty-two weeks at number one.

The last seven chapters of the novel were later adapted in the form of a second miniseries, Roots: The Next Generations (1979). It stimulated interest in African American genealogy and an appreciation for African American history.

Alex Haley also recounts his journey of family discovery and efforts to document his grandmother's stories. He had learned of an ancestor named Kunta Kinte, who was taken as a captive to "'Naplis" and given the slave name Toby. The old African called a guitar a ko, and a river the Kamby Bolongo. While on a reporting trip to London, Haley sees the Rosetta Stone in the British Museum and thinks of his own family's oral traditions. Could he trace his own family lineage back to its origins in Africa?

Published in October 1976 amid significant advance expectations, "Roots" was immediately successful, debuting at number five of The New York Times Best Seller list. (The Times classified it as nonfiction). By mid-November, it rose to number one.