Homegoing

The biggest literary debut of the year - a Sunday Times Top 10 Bestseller and winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Best First BookHomegoing has received rave reviews across the press, with comparisons to Toni Morrison, Chinua Achebe, Alex Haley and Joyce Carol Oates'Remarkable' Sunday Times 'Astonishing' Observer 'Awe-inspiring' Times 'Brilliant' Sunday Telegraph 'Extraordinary' Glamour A novel for our times: moving, deeply humane, with a story that won't let you goSelected for Granta's Best of Young American Novelists 2017This novel boldly pushes the scope and possibilities of what historical fiction can do. Intimate yet expansive . . . one of the many extraordinary achievements of Gyasi's enviable debut is the writer's ability to make all the myriad descendants here - enslaved mothers, carpenters, academics - equally worthy of the reader's sustained engagement and compassionShows the unmistakable touch of a gifted writerI think I needed to read a book like this to remember what is possible. I think I needed to remember what happens when you pair a gifted literary mind to an epic task. Homegoing is an inspirationWildly ambitious debut by a 26-year-old writer . . . It's impossible not to admire the ambition and scope of Homegoing Remarkable, is a devastating account of America....explores horror without ever losing sight of humanity or hope[A] commanding debut . . . will stay with you long after you've finished reading. When people talk about all the things fiction can teach its readers, they're talking about books like thisGyasi gives voice, and an empathetic ear, to the ensuing seven generations of flawed and deeply human descendants, creating a patchwork mastery of historical fictionAn astonishing epic debutHomegoing is a novel I wish I could have read when I was a young woman. An intelligent, beautiful and healing read, destined to become a classicHomegoing is one hell of a book... I recommend Homegoing without reservation. Definitely a must read for 2016.The brilliance of this structure, in which we know more than the characters do about the fate of their parents and children, pays homage to the vast scope of slavery without losing sight of its private devastation . . . . [Toni Morrison's] influence is palpable in Gyasi's historicity and lyricism; she shares Morrison's uncanny ability to crystalize, in a single event, slavery's moral and emotional fallout. What is uniquely Gyasi's is her ability to connect it so explicitly to the present day: No novel has better illustrated the way in which racism became institutionalized in this country.Homegoing is a remarkable feat - a novel at once epic and intimate, capturing the moral weight of history as it bears down on individual struggles, hopes and fears. A tremendous debutA marvellous novelRarely does a grand, sweeping epic plumb interior lives so thoroughly. Yaa Gyasi's Homegoing is a marvel. Homegoing is an epic novel in every sense of the word - spanning three centuries, Homegoing is a sweeping account of two half-sisters in 18th-century Ghana and the lives of their many generations of descendants in America. A stunning, unforgettable account of family, history, and racism, Homegoing is an ambitious work that lives up to the hype.One of the richest, most rewarding reads of 2016Gyasi echoes [James] Baldwin's understanding of a common culture marked by both yearning and pain, in which black people can confront each other across differences and reach a political understanding about what unites them. What distinguishes Gyasi's presentation of this idea is its scope: She does not present us with a single moment, but rather delivers a multigenerational saga in which two branches of a family, separated by slavery and time, emerge from the murk of history in a romantic embrace . . . . . Homegoing is a reminder of the tenacity of fathers and mothers who struggle to keep their kin alive. The novel succeeds when it retrieves individual lives from the oblivion mandated by racism and spins the story of the family's struggle to survive.A memorable epic of changing families and changing nationsEpic...astonishing...page-turningYaa Gyasi establishes herself as an exciting new literary voice with a powerful debutA hypnotic debut novel by... a stirringly gifted young writerTremendous...spectacular...[Homegoing is] essential reading from a young writer whose stellar instincts, sturdy craftsmanship and penetrating wisdom seem likely to continue apace - much to our good fortune as readers[A] sprawling epic... brims with compassion... In Homegoing, Yaa Gyasi has given rare and heroic voice to the missing and suppressedA bold tale of slavery for a new 'Roots' generationRich, epic. . . Each chapter is tightly plotted, and there are suspenseful, even spectacular climaxesRarely does a grand, sweeping epic plumb interior lives so thoroughly. Yaa Gyasi's Homegoing is a marvelTerrificSpectacular Homegoing is stunning - a truly heartbreaking work of literary geniusThis is, hand on heart, a completely brilliant novel...a brilliant debut. If this isn't shortlisted for some prizes next year, I'll be disappointedEncompassing events major and minor, but skilfully skipping the civil war, it humanises big issues by giving us unforgettable characters. It could not be more relevant or neededGyasi imbues indigenous life with richness and dignity, in a style that owes something - though by no means everything - to Chinua Achebe...it serves as the engine for a powerful messageA future classic and a novel that you'll want to pass on to everyone you know...the real deal...2017 is set to be the year of HomegoingWhile the issues she wrestles with are heavy, her writing is a joy....Now, more than ever, we need books like this oneHugely courageous and really importantHomegoing is remarkable...the writing at the end of the book is every bit as vital as that at the start...she has produced a contemporary classic - one you'll actually want to readAn epic debut novelIntriguing debut...a noble enterpriseBrilliantVivid and ambitious debutToni Morrison's Beloved spoke to a generation. Yaa Gyasi's Homegoing will do the same for a new one. In a word, it's brilliant. And not just "for a debut"The powerful narrative of Yaa Gyasi's accomplished first novel do more than reveal the history that still troubles the United States. They make that history immediateA fascinating view of the history of slavery...Gyasi gives voice to suppressed stories, and that feels hugely important....it certainly deserves our attentionA searing indictment of racism and a very impressive debutAmbitious, superbly written, important - don't miss this oneIt is written with such maturity and beauty, that it is hard to believe it is Gyasi's first published work...Gyasi has created a masterpiece which is educational, highly ambitious and extremely touching. Her writing style is raw and intense and leaves one desperate to see what work she will produce in the futureExtraordinaryThe hype is justifiedThis unputdownable tale spans three continents and seven generations to tell the story of a family and of America itselfA bold and ambitious debut...full of fire and youthful confidenceHere is a book to help us remember. It is well worth its weightHands down the best book I've read in months...I can't wait to see what Yaa Gyasi does nextGyasi has created a masterpiece which is educational, highly ambitious and extremely touchingThrough her words we come to understand parts of history that are sometimes ignoredAn epic sagaA wonderfully evocative and compassionate novel - one that shows deftness, depth and maturity. Homegoing is a gift to its readers and a treasure to cherishThe structure is fantastically strong, but it would have been nothing without Gyasi's ability to bring each character alive. At every turn she resists cliché and dogma ... she deftly weaves in just enough historical information without sacrificing its complexity ... Homegoing has something better than perfection, and that is a touch of magic... [Gyasi is] the right artist at the right timeGyasi's debut novel has a distinctive strength and courage ... a descendent of Alex Haley's Roots and Toni Morrison's Beloved, an extended response to Joyce Carol Oates's Last Hundred Years trilogyA confident, vivid, engrossingtale [that] winds towards a moving conclusionGyasi's widescreen view of history powerfully drives home her view that we are all responsible for ourselves and for each other ... a highly compassionate feat of storytellingEntwining history, politics and personal events, this is an ambitious novel that is, and will continue to be, highly culturally relevantAstoundingly ambitiousAmbition and talent don't always go hand-in-hand; here they unquestionably doTracing the descendants of two women across seven generations, this unflinching debut from Ghanaian-American author Yaa Gyasi examines the lingering effects of slavery from the 18th-century Gold Coast to the US at the turn of the 21st centuryAmbitious, multi-generational saga of the effects of the slave trade

A BBC Top 100 Novels that Shaped Our World

Effia and Esi: two sisters with two very different destinies. One sold into slavery; one a slave trader's wife. The consequences of their fate reverberate through the generations that follow. Taking us from the Gold Coast of Africa to the cotton-picking plantations of Mississippi; from the missionary schools of Ghana to the dive bars of Harlem, spanning three continents and seven generations, Yaa Gyasi has written a miraculous novel - the intimate, gripping story of a brilliantly vivid cast of characters and through their lives the very story of America itself.

Epic in its canvas and intimate in its portraits, Homegoing is a searing and profound debut from a masterly new writer.

'This incredible book travels from Ghana to the US revealing how slavery destroyed so many families, traditions and lives - and how its terrifying impact is still reverberating now. Gyasi has created a story of real power and insight' Stylist, the Decade's 15 Best Books by Remarkable Women

Selected for Granta's Best of Young American Novelists 2017
Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Best First Book
Shortlisted for the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize for Debut Fiction
Shortlisted for the Beautiful Book Award 2017