#17 in Historical fiction
Roots: The Saga of an American Family
- 688
- Pages
- about 13 h
- Reading time
- Series 1977 +1
- On screen
- Pulitzer Prize Special Citations and Awards
- Bancarella Literary Prize
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Our view
“Roots” makes the history of American slavery felt through one family, from Kunta Kinte’s capture to the author’s own generation. Alex Haley follows an eighteenth-century Mandinka youth shipped to North America and then his descendants, across nearly seven hundred pages. Some readers find the plain, unadorned telling flat. Others call the book painful to read and important for understanding that history.
The view of the BookRank editors, written from readers’ ratings and comments. It does not affect the score or the book’s place in a ranking.
About the book
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.
On screen
This book has been adapted for the screen 2 times — from 1977 to 2016.
Adaptation data: Wikidata · On screen →
Where the score comes from
The sources average 8.7 across 104 ratings — not yet many, so the reader vote carries 41% of the weight and the rest pulls toward the Historical fiction average of 8.0. That is how 8.4 comes out. A further +0.10 comes from the small bonus for major awards.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Library | 9.0 | 27 | 26% |
| Hardcover | 8.6 | 77 | 74% |
Frequently asked
How long is Roots: The Saga of an American Family?
It has 688 pages — longer than 80% of the ranked books in Historical fiction.
In this book
Themes this book shares with others — each leads to the best books on it.
If you liked this
Same shelf — Historical fiction — with scores between 8.3 and 8.4, closest to this book.
