Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi, a book review

This is my book club book for this book which we will be talking about next week. Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi is not a book I would have picked up myself but I have thoroughly enjoyed it.

The Blurb

I always start with the blurb, or the writing on the back of the book.

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.

My Review of Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

The story begins in the mid 18th Century, in Ghana. First we meet Effia who is not really loved by her mother and often beaten, she was sold to a slave trader and went to live in a castle.

The next chapter is her sister, who only just learns she has a sister. Their village is attacked and she is taken to be a slave in the dungeons of castle.

There is a family tree at the beginning of the book which becomes increasingly helpful as each of the chapters of the book follows on of the family members story through time. The next story is Effia’s son Quay and the next Essi’s daughter Ness and so on.

The slave trader’s wife Effia decides to stay in Ghana, while Essi’s daughter ends up as a slave in America. Each family member’s story is so interesting and so different, but you do wonder where it’s going. Then suddenly, it all makes sense and it’s amazing, the long, long connection through centuries of black and white.

As well as being an interesting story you also have the horrors of the slave trade and there is lots to learn. Yes, the white men were really bad, but so were the black men, pillaging other villages and selling who they caught to the white men. It’s all quite shocking and horrifying.

There are many triggering stories here so it’s not for the light hearted but it is enlightening and so well written. I couldn’t stop reading.

I don’t want to give to much away but the ending was so simple yet perfect.

If you want to read something different, that spans a long line of the same family split in two.