In 1860, 11-year-old Kofi Offin, an Asante boy of the fictional West African village of Upper Kwanta, reveres his older brother Kwasi and loves the stories told by his grandfather, Nana Mosi. He has a best friend, Ebo, and a crush on a girl named Ama. He resents his schoolteacher for insisting that his students speak “the Queen’s English” rather than their native Twi in school. And he is often at odds with his bully of a cousin, who has challenged him to a swimming competition. But the rhythms of Kofi’s daily life and relationships are disrupted when Kwasi accidentally kills the son of the leader of nearby Lower Kwanta in a wrestling match at the annual Kings Festival. Though officially acquitted, Kwasi is devastated, and the people of Lower Kwanta are enraged. They kidnap the two brothers; Kwasi is beaten to death, and Kofi, along with several other boys, is taken to a fortress—the last stopping point before they will be put on a ship, the USS Georgetown. His life abruptly upended, Kofi finds himself on a path of horror that readers know will inevitably lead to the titular “door of no return,” the door through which prisoners pass before being forced into the Middle Passage. This novel in verse, told in Kofi’s genuine, engaging voice, is captivating and disturbing in equal measure. (Age 10 and older)