Yaa Gyasi: Homegoing, Knopf/Penguin Random House US, 978045149385, paperback, Viking/ Penguin Random House UK, Jan. 2017, 9780241242735, both available now

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 18^th 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 !