Book Club with Katie Sweeting Author of Remnant

Kidnapped along with her brother Ledu (Olaudah Equiano) at the tender age of eleven, Olu is dragged across Nigeria, deposited on a slave ship for the Middle Passage, and dropped on a rice plantation in Charles Town, South Carolina in 1753. During the Revolutionary War she attempts to escape. Will she succeed? Will she reunite with any of her family members?

Joanna Vassa (daughter of Equiano) is introduced to William Wilberforce and the abolition movement when she is eleven. A biracial orphan, Joanna is raised by her guardian, and while away at boarding school she encounters racist attitudes and struggles to make friends. She seeks information about her Aunt Olu. Will they ever meet?

Remnant is a coming-of-age memoir-inspired story about two young women of color striving to carve out meaningful lives despite monumental obstacles. Will a family separated by slavery ever be reunited?

About the Author:

I am the daughter of two professors, my father taught psychology at CSUN and my mom taught English at Santa Monica College. Following in their footsteps, I am an English professor at Hudson County Community College, teaching literature, composition, and speech classes. I was a Fulbright-Nehru scholar in India during spring 2022, teaching two courses at Fergusson College in Pune–a wonderful, transformative sojourn in India. In 2002, I co-wrote The Power of a City at Prayer.

On April 24, 2024 Remnant, my historical novel about the daughter and sister of Olaudah Equiano, was published. Acclaimed author Jeffery Renard Allen states, “In Remnant, gifted novelist Katie Sweeting powerfully dramatizes the interconnected stories of two Black women surviving the evils of the Transatlantic Slave Trade. We live their struggles. We suffer their setbacks and triumphs. Sweeting’s book brings alive a past that some want us to forget. A most welcome achievement.”

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