Point of View

River Sing Me Home is written from the third person point of view. This third person narrator, however, is not omniscient. Rather, the narrative lens is limited to the lens of the protagonist, Rachel. This means that the ways in which the narrator renders the narrative world from the novel’s beginning to its end, are directly inspired by Rachel’s consciousness.

The author establishes this intimate relationship between the narrator and the main character within the opening paragraphs of “Barbados, August 1834,” Chapter 1: “Her chest ached. She wanted to collapse but could not; her body, unbidden, carried her farther and farther away from Providence. Every snap of a twig sounded like a gunshot; the murmuring of cane toads became the distant cries of searching men. She must keep running. Alone, mud-streaked, with weariness sinking into her very bones, a question haunted her— Was this freedom...