Raised in the pre-industrialized village of Sika during the colonial era of West Africa’s The Gambia, there was no reason to suspect that young Bakary J. Sonko would grow to be anything other than the same subsistence farmer as his father and all the other village men. But through an obsessive desire for intellectual challenge, Sonko beat the usual odds and attained a college degree, with fascinating stops along the way at the 1977 Sierra Leone student revolution, Muammar Gaddafi’s Libyan Arab Republic, the University of London, and eventually Britain’s prestigious Cambridge University. In this witty and heartwarming memoir, Sonko tells the entire story, as well as sharing his passionate arguments for more modern infrastructure and investment in the still poor and underdeveloped African nation he once called home. Equally moving and funny, Improbable Journey stands as an indelible addition to the field of African Diaspora literature, and will change the way you think of the American immigrant experience.

Connecting the author's departure from The Gambia, an illustration of the Lady Wright can be seen navigating the narrow twists and turns along using the Gambia River inching its way closer until it finally reaches the entrance of Cambridge University. A meandering journey which itself seems almost as improbable as a farmer’s son in pre-industrialized colonial West Africa earning a science doctorate degree at Cambridge University. Avoiding cliches such as baobab trees or thatched mud huts, the cover design is set in color palettes that relate to rural West Africa in a nod to the author's roots.