Yaa Gyasi: Homegoing,
Knopf/Penguin Random House US, 978045149385, paperback, Viking/ Penguin Random House UK, Jan. 2017,
Every once in a while a debut comes along which knocks
you of your feet. “Homegoing” by Yaa Gyasi is such a book, you finish it, sit
there, sad the last page has been read and cannot pick up another book for a
day or so. This is what just happened to me, “Homegoing” is definitely going up
on my shelf of all-time favorite books. An epic story, a literary page-turner, a historical
novel set in America and Ghana, all blended together.
Yaa Gyasi was born in Ghana and grew up in Alabama;
she comes with a brilliant background graduating from the Iowa’s Writer’s Workshop.
I am not surprised the rights to this book were snatched up by 21 countries
around the world very quickly.
Effia and Esi are two sisters born in Africa along the
Gold Coast but separated immediately after birth, never to learn of each
other’s existence. Following their very
different destinies and those of their bloodlines, one to remain in Africa
throughout many generations and another to be sold into America slavery, you
become a firsthand witness of the atrocities, fears, struggles and dreams in
their lives. I sometimes had to put the
book down, could not bear to read on, the misery and injustice these people
suffered were so vivid.
In alternating chapters, from the 18th
century onwards to the present, starting with Effia and Esi’s lives, Yaa Gyasi
picks one character of the following generation and with their portrait captures
a part of history on both sides of the Atlantic. In the following chapter you often learn of
the final fate of the family member described in the previous chapter which
often remains unresolved.
It is an incredible story with unforgettable
characters going back and forth between the Gold Coast, later Ghana, the slave
trade amongst the African tribes and the British, the American South, the Anti-Slavery
movement, the misery black convicts suffered in American coal mines, New York
and Harlem. Each chapter is so very rich;
I often consulted the family tree at the beginning of the book reminding myself
of the red string connected to everyone’s lives.
I encourage you to go out and buy this fabulous book;
I promise you will not regret it. The
German edition is not listed yet.
Absolutely love the cover of the American paperback edition !
