Homegoing

by

trade paperback, 305 pages

English language

Published April 18, 2017 by Vintage Books.

ISBN:
978-1-101-97106-2
Copied ISBN!
OCLC Number:
989489858

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4 stars (5 reviews)

Ghana, eighteenth century: two half sisters are born into different villages, each unaware of the other. One will marry an Englishman and lead a life of comfort in the palatial rooms of the Cape Coast Castle. The other will be captured in a raid on her village, imprisoned in the very same castle, and sold into slavery.

Homegoing follows the parallel paths of these sisters and their descendants through eight generations: from the Gold Coast to the plantations of Mississippi, from the American Civil War to Jazz Age Harlem. Yaa Gyasi’s extraordinary novel illuminates slavery’s troubled legacy both for those who were taken and those who stayed—and shows how the memory of captivity has been inscribed on the soul of our nation. --back cover

22 editions

reviewed Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

I feel like this is a must-read for everyone.

5 stars

This book is HEAVY. Would not recommend picking this one up if you are in an emotional state at all because this will rip you apart. Gyasi does an amazing job with writing about the Black experiences throughout history. You're following a family line through multiple generations from the beginning of slaves being sold off to the white men.

While this is a very heavy book on the emotions, it is not just trauma on display. There are a lot of heartfelt, joyful moments between family members and an underlying vein of hopefulness that you'll be able to see the family break out of the literal and metaphorical chains that they were placed in. The ending of the book was perfect and made me smile.

Cannot recommend this enough. Read this book!

reviewed Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

Stimulating and Entrancing

5 stars

This book gripped me immediately. A wonderfully written dive into how the slave trade effected and shaped not just the Americas, but also the land the slaves came from. I was enamored in how each generation built on the tragedy and triumphs of the previous generations. I also honestly appreciated that the book wasn't the equivalent of trauma porn, with moments of joy and achievement throughout.

I remember I finished this book on my lunch break at work, and I literally gasped in joy at the ending, as I felt it was the best way that things could have ended.

This book brought me so much joy, as well as great insight into the Black experience through the years and how each historical era changed things.

I've been verbally recommending this book to everyone, and now I'll do it online too.

reviewed Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

Review of 'Homegoing' on 'Storygraph'

4 stars

For me, this debut novel is without a doubt worth a recommendation. While its sprawling nature and largely unremarkable writing might make it fall flat for some readers, it presented an interesting, captivating story for me. Of course, this book isn’t worthy of a Nobel prize in literature, but that is an overly pretentious expectation for a writer. This book has its special pull for me, even if that didn’t come from the plot itself, but from my expectations and a collection of great characters.

As a whole, I enjoyed the depth, the unique structure of this book gave its characters, especially the strand of the family that remained in Ghana. And I enjoyed the look into Ghanaian history, that gave me the appetite to look into it more. The same unfortunately can’t be said for the view into US history. Though it certainly offers a unique perspective of slavery …

avatar for acaleyn@bookwyrm.social

rated it

3 stars

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