HOMEGOING

By Yaa Gyasi

⭐⭐⭐⭐ ¼ (Goodreads: 4.47)

GENRE: Historical Fiction

PART OF A SERIES? No

WORTH READING? Yes

SUMMARY:

Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi is a powerful, multi-generational novel that traces the legacy of slavery and colonialism through two branches of a Ghanaian family. Beginning in the 18^th century, the story follows the divergent paths of two half-sisters—one remains in West Africa, the other is captured and sent across the Atlantic into slavery.

The novel is structured as a series of interconnected stories, with each chapter focusing on a different descendant from alternating family lines. One branch follows the African lineage through British colonial rule, tribal warfare, and Ghana's path to independence. The other traces the American descendants through the horrors of plantation slavery, the aftermath of the Civil War, Jim Crow laws, and the challenges of 20^th-century urban life.

Opening lines: “The night Effia Otcher was born into the musky heat of Fanteland, a fire raged through the woods just outside her father’s compound.”

Yaa Gyasi has a beautiful command of language. The way she expresses things in Homegoing is so special. I wanted to share so many examples, but here are just a few. 1. “She tried to smile, but she had been born during the years of Esi’s unsmiling… The corners of her lips always seemed to twitch upward…then fall within milliseconds, as though attached to that sadness that had once anchored her mother’s own heart. 2. “Her scowl was held in place by the hundreds of tiny wrinkles that pulled at her skin.” 3. “(The) witch doctor… was missing all but her four front teeth, evenly spaced, as though they had chased all of the other teeth out of her mouth and then joined together in the middle, triumphant.”

Gyasi has created so many different, yet vivid, worlds throughout Homegoing. Right from the start, I felt drawn into these characters’ lives; I was genuinely surprised by how engrossed and invested I became — especially when I might only have ‘met’ that character two pages earlier.

One thing I will say is that Homegoing can get a little confusing at times, due to the cast of thousands. I had the library book in my possession, as well as the audiobook; I highly recommend getting hold of the physical book or at least googling the family trees for this story. That being said, Yaa Gyasi has shown her exceptional skill with writing, in that she makes the reader care about each and every character, which cannot have been an easy feat. At times, though, I did feel that Gyasi was perhaps a smidge ambitious.

I think Yaa Gyasi has done a wonderful job of her debut novel, and I will definitely read her subsequent books! In Homegoing, Gyasi combines historical breadth with intimate character studies, showing how the past shapes the present in profound and often unexpected ways.

Click here to read Homegoing 

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