Homegoing

Yaa Gyasi (author)

Paperback Published on: 05/10/2017

£9.99

27 reviews

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Bookseller Reviews

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Beautiful and Memorable

I was recommended this by a customer who is a real expert on brilliant fiction, and it lived up to his enthusiastic praise. The structure of the novel is w... READ MORE

Cat at York

Important and full of feeling

I wanted to read this book as it was our Book of the Month. It is a book about slavery in all its evil forms but also about the legacy of slavery which c... READ MORE

Tracey McHardy

An accomplished, enlightening debut

Beginning with the diverging fates of two sisters who will never meet, Homegoing traces the ways that slavery affects two very different families over mult... READ MORE

Jodie at Merry Hill

Brilliant debut

I cannot fault this book, I really thought it was amazing. A cast of characters that are so believable it feels wrong to describe them as characters, ever... READ MORE

Abigail@PlymouthDrake

A beautiful telling of the reverberations of the slave trade down the generations.

Homegoing is an incredibly rich novel exploring the varied stories of the descendants of two 18th century Asante half-sisters, one married to a British sla... READ MORE

Kate Millington

A rich and inspiring tapestry of characters and history.

I was absolutely compelled by this novel. Each chapter follows a new generation of two lines of the same family, and so the book reads almost like a collec... READ MORE

Alice

One of the Most Important New Writers

This is the story of two sisters centuries ago on the African continent - one who becomes enslaved and one who remains. Each chapter is a different point o... READ MORE

Courtney Bateman

Synopsis

The night Effia Otcha was born into the musky heat of Fanteland, a fire raged through her father’s compound. It moved quickly, tearing a path for days. It lived off the air; it slept in caves and hid in trees; it burned, up and through, unconcerned with what wreckage it left behind, until it reached an Asante village. There, it disappeared, becoming one with the night.

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. As each chapter offers up a new descendant, alternating between Effia’s and Esi’s bloodline right up to the present day, a chasm of experience and the differing legacies of chance are brought starkly to light.

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.

Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
ISBN: 9780241975237
Number of pages: 320
Weight: 222g
Dimensions: 197 x 127 x 19 mm

Customer Reviews

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Thought provoking

Easy to read. Hard to put nown. Thoroughly enjoyable. Starting in Ghana the story shows how decisions we make impact the future generations. Each chapter... READ MORE

Sian

LIFE AFFIRMING!

Where do I begin with this book. I was in awe from the first page. Gyasi’s ability to seamlessly capture the essence of family over generations is poetic. ... READ MORE

Elaine Tate

An Amazing Reading Experience

Okay wow! This is now potentially one of my top 10 favourite books of all time. It’s everything I hoped it would be and more! Two half-sisters, Effia and... READ MORE

louus_library

A troubling but immensely informative novel

Read this for my reading group. This was well-written taking us on the very painful history of two sisters and their descendants. It was, however, also ver... READ MORE

Sue Saunders

Utterly sublime reading

I came across this book after a recent episode of This is Us featured Rebecca and Randall discussing it. Both Randall and Rebecca confessed to sobbing at a... READ MORE

Deborah

Powerful and moving

Loved this book and have bought several copies to give to friends and family. An important, emotional read.

Amy Lewis

One of the best books I’ve read. Unbelievable it’s a debut

I have the biggest book hangover after finishing this. This is a painful, immersive, beautiful, compassionate and important read. I can’t wait for her next... READ MORE

Ellie

Challenging read but very interesting

I have learnt a lot through reading this book! A lot of interesting stories about the slave trade which I didn’t know a lot about before this novel. The st... READ MORE

Sophie Ll

Stunning, epic story of generations

This book completely enthralled me from the first page. As a white woman, I'm trying to further educate myself on matters of race and have been reading as ... READ MORE

Gaby R-W

Worth reading, but...

I’d be lying if I said I enjoyed this book. It was worth reading, and I learned a lot, but I was glad to reach the end. An epic spanning several generation... READ MORE

Lesley Jane

A moving historical read

I would describe Homegoing as a book of short stories all linked together starting off in the Gold Coast (now known as Ghana) during the mid-1700's with tw... READ MORE

Emma Louise Smith

Breathtaking in its breadth

A breathtaking generational saga, sweeping down the family lines of two half-sisters, beginning in Ghana and ending in modern day USA. We visit poor, Afric... READ MORE

BarbaraC

Best fiction book I’ve ever read.

I am definitely not a fiction lover and I often try to avoid fiction books. Having said this, I can easily say this is one of the best books I’ve read. The... READ MORE

Tatiana Cunha

An eloquent and heartbreaking read

Homegoing, by Yaa Gyasi, is an eloquent novel that tells the story of 2 sisters, Effia and Esi, who are separated at birth. Their stories follow very diffe... READ MORE

T.Saunders

Homegoing

Bookseller Reviews

Synopsis

Customer Reviews

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