YAA GYASI was born in Ghana and raised in Huntsville,
Alabama. She holds a BA in English from Stanford University
and an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, where she held a Dean’s
Graduate Research Fellowship. She lives in Brooklyn.
“Gyasi’s characters are so fully realized, so elegantly carved—very
often I found myself longing to hear more. Craft is essential given
the task Gyasi sets for herself—drawing not just a lineage of two
sisters, but two related peoples. Gyasi is deeply concerned with
the sin of selling humans on Africans, not Europeans. But she does
not scold. She does not excuse. And she does not romanticize. The
black Americans she follows are not overly virtuous victims.
Sin comes in all forms, from selling people to abandoning
children. I think I needed to read a book like this to
remember what is possible. I think I needed to remember what
happens when you pair a gifted literary mind to an epic task.
Homegoing is an inspiration.”
—Ta-Nehisi Coates, National Book Award-winning author of Between
the World and Me
"Homegoing is a remarkable feat—a novel at once epic and intimate,
capturing the moral weight of history as it bears down on
individual struggles, hopes, and fears. A tremendous
debut.”
—Phil Klay, National Book Award-winning author of Redeployment
“I could not put this book down”
—Roxane Gay
“It is hard to overstate how much I LOVE this book”
—Michele Norris
"One of the most fantastic books I've read in a long time...you cry
and you laugh as you're reading it...a beautiful story"
—Trevor Noah, The Daily Show
“The hypnotic debut novel by Yaa Gyasi, a stirringly gifted writer
. . . magical . . . the great, aching gift of the novel is that it
offers, in its own way, the very thing that enslavement denied its
descendants: the possibility of imagining the connection between
the broken threads of their origins.”
—Isabel Wilkerson, The New York Times Book Review
"It’s impossible not to admire the ambition and scope of
“Homegoing,” and thanks to Ms. Gyasi’s instinctive storytelling
gifts, the book leaves the reader with a visceral understanding of
both the savage realities of slavery and the emotional damage that
is handed down, over the centuries, from mothers to daughters,
fathers to sons. At its best, the novel makes us experience the
horrors of slavery on an intimate, personal level; by its
conclusion, the characters’ tales of loss and resilience have
acquired an inexorable and cumulative emotional weight."
—Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times
"The brilliance of this structure, in which we know more than the
characters do about the fate of their parents and children, pays
homage to the vast scope of slavery without losing sight of its
private devastation . . . . [Toni Morrison’s] influence is palpable
in Gyasi’s historicity and lyricism; she shares Morrison’s uncanny
ability to crystalize, in a single event, slavery’s moral and
emotional fallout. What is uniquely Gyasi’s is her ability to
connect it so explicitly to the present day: No novel has better
illustrated the way in which racism became institutionalized in
this country.”
—Megan O’Grady, Vogue
“Toni Morrison’s masterpiece, “Beloved,” seared into our
imagination the grotesque distortions of antebellum life. And now,
Yaa Gyasi’s rich debut novel, “Homegoing,” confronts us
of the involvement of Africans in the enslavement of their own
people . . . the speed with which Gyasi sweeps across the decades
isn’t confusing so much as dazzling, creating a kind of
time-elapsed photo of black lives in America and in the motherland
. . . haunting . . . Gyasi has developed a style agile enough to
reflect the remarkable range of her first novel. As she moves
across the centuries, from old and new Ghana and to pre-Civil War
Alabama and modern-day Palo Alto, her prose modulates subtly
according to time and setting: The 18th-century chapters resonate
with the tones of legend, while the contemporary chapters shine
with clear-eyed realism. And somehow all this takes place in the
miraculous efficiency of just 300 pages . . . truly
captivating.”
—Ron Charles, Washington Post
“Gyasi echoes [James] Baldwin’s understanding of a common culture
marked by both yearning and pain, in which black people can
confront each other across differences and reach a political
understanding about what unites them. What distinguishes Gyasi’s
presentation of this idea is its scope: She does not present us
with a single moment, but rather delivers a multigenerational saga
in which two branches of a family, separated by slavery and time,
emerge from the murk of history in a romantic embrace . . . . .
HOMEGOING is a reminder of the tenacity of fathers and mothers who
struggle to keep their kin alive. The novel succeeds when it
retrieves individual lives from the oblivion mandated by racism and
spins the story of the family’s struggle to survive.”
—Amitava Kumar, Bookforum
“Rich, epic . . . . Each chapter is tightly plotted, and there are
suspenseful, even spectacular climaxes.”
—Christian Lorentzen, New York Magazine
“Gripping.”
—Sam Sacks, Wall Street Journal
“A memorable epic of changing families and changing nations.”
—Chicago Tribune
"Remarkable...compelling...powerful."
—Rebecca Steinitz, Boston Globe
"Epic...astonishing...page-turning."
—Entertainment Weekly
“The arrival of a major new voice in American literature”
—Poets & Writers
"Tremendous...spectacular...[HOMEGOING is] essential reading
from a young writer whose stellar instincts, sturdy craftsmanship
and penetrating wisdom seem likely to continue apace — much to our
good fortune as readers."
—SF Chronicle
“A blazing success . . . . The sum of Homegoing’s parts is
remarkable, a panoramic portrait of the slave trade and its
reverberations, told through the travails of one family that
carries the scars of that legacy . . . . Gyasi’s characters may be
fictional, but their stories are representative of a range of
experience that is all too real and difficult to uncover. Terrible
things happen to them; they’re constantly cleaved apart, and in the
process, cut off from their own stories. In her ambitious and
sweeping novel, Gyasi has made these lost stories a little more
visible.”
—Steph Cha, Los Angeles Times
“The most powerful debut novel of 2016 . . . . Carrying on in the
tradition of her foremothers—like Toni Morrison, Edwidge Danticat,
Assia Djebar and Bessie Head—Gyasi has created a marvelous work of
fiction that both embraces and re-writes history.”
— Shannon M. Houston, Paste Magazine
“Heart-wrenching . . . . Gyasi’s unsentimental prose, her vibrant
characters and her rich settings keep the pages turning no matter
how mournful the plot . . . . The horror of being present at the
wrong place and the wrong time, whether black or white, is handled
poignantly . . . . The chapters change narrators effortlessly and
smoothly transition between time periods . . . . I kept expecting a
Henry Louis Gates ‘Find Your Roots’ TV show . . . . Yaa Gyasi’s
assured Homegoing is a panorama of splendid faces.”
—Soniah Kamal, Atlanta Journal-Constitution
“A remarkable achievement, marking the arrival of a powerful new
voice in fiction.”
—Kelsey Ronan, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
"Gyasi's lyrical, devastating debut more than deserves to be
held in its own light.... Gyasi traces black history from
the Middle Passage to the Great Migration and beyond, bringing
every Asante village, cotton plantation, and coal
mine into vivid focus. The rhythm of her
streamlined sentences is clipped and clean, with
brilliant bursts of primary color...the luminous beauty of
Gyasi’s unforgettable telling. A–"
--Leah Greenblatt, Entertainment Weekly
“Gyasi is a deeply empathetic writer, and each of the novel’s 14
chapters is a savvy character portrait that reveals the impact of
racism from multiple perspectives . . . . A promising debut that’s
awake to emotional, political, and cultural tensions across time
and continents.”
—Kirkus Reviews, March 15, 2016
“Homegoing is an epic novel in every sense of the word —
spanning three centuries, Homegoing is a sweeping account
of two half-sisters in 18th-century Ghana and the lives of their
many generations of descendants in America. A stunning,
unforgettable account of family, history, and
racism, Homegoing is an ambitious work that lives up to
the hype.”
—Jarry Lee, Buzzfeed
“Stunning . . . . [HOMEGOING] may just be one of the richest, most
rewarding reads of 2016.”
—Meredith Turits, ELLE Magazine’s “19 Summer Books That Everyone
Will Be Talking About”
"Rarely does a grand, sweeping epic plumb interior lives so
thoroughly. Yaa Gyasi's Homegoing is a marvel."
—Dave Wheeler, associate editor, Shelf Awareness
“Gyasi gives voice, and an empathetic ear, to the ensuing seven
generations of flawed and deeply human descendants, creating a
patchwork mastery of historical fiction.”
—Cotton Codinha, Elle Magazine
“[A] commanding debut . . . will stay with you long after you’ve
finished reading. When people talk about all the things fiction can
teach its readers, they’re talking about books like this.”
—Steph Opitz, Marie Claire
"Stunning, unforgettable... Homegoing is an ambitious work
that lives up to the hype."
—Buzzfeed
"Striking... With racial inequality at the forefront of America’s
consciousness, Homegoing is a reminder of slavery’s
rippling repercussions, not only in America, Gyasi points out, but
around the world."
—Departures Magazine
"HOMEGOING is sprawling, epic.”
—Hope Wabuke, The Root
“An important, riveting page-turner filled with beautiful prose,
Homegoing shoots for the moon and lands right on it.”
—Isaac Fitzgerald, Buzzfeed
"Each chapter is filled with so much emotion and depth and tackles
so many different topics.... I didn't want to put it down."
—BookRiot
"Dazzling."
—Mother Jones
"Lyric and versatile . . . [Yaa Gyasi] writes with authority
about history and pulls her readers deep into her characters' lives
through the force of her empathetic imagination . . . striking . .
. [a] strong debut novel."
—Maureen Corrigan, NPR's Fresh Air
"Stunning...vivid and poignant"
—WBUR
“Bewitching, eye-opening”
—Goodreads
"Courageous . . . [Yaa Gyasi] approaches tough topics with
unflinching honesty."
—The Washington Independent Review of Books
"[HOMEGOING] lives up to the hype."
—New York Magazine Approval Matrix
“Epic . . . The destinies of Effia Otcher and Esi Asare in Yaa
Gyasi’s spellbinding Homegoing recall those of sisters Celie and
Nettie in Alice Walker’s The Color Purple, switched-at-birth
infants Saleem and Shiva in Salman Rushdie’s Midnight's Children
and compatriot clones Sydney Carton and Charles Darnay in Charles
Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities. Gyasi’s debut novel effortlessly
earns its spot alongside these distinguished classics . . . . The
author’s penetrating prose draws intimate and deeply cultivated
connections between rival tribes, languages lost and found, real
love and a hardness of spirit. And in the process, Gyasi has
written a nuanced, scintillating investigation into the myriad
intricacies and institutions that shape a family.”
— Anjali Enjeti, Minneapolis Star-Tribune
“Impressive . . . intricate in plot and scope . . . .
Homegoing serves as a modern-day reconstruction of lost and
untold narratives — and a desire to move forward.”
—Dana De Greff, Miami Herald
“No debate at all: Yaa Gyasi’s Homegoing is impressive,
impassioned, and utterly original . . . a story so personalized, so
urgent and timely, especially for today’s readers and the many who
do not seem to understand why African Americans are so
conflicted.”
—Charles R. Larson, Counterpunch
“Epic . . . a timely, riveting portrayal of the global African
Diaspora—and the aftereffects that linger on to this day.”
—Hope Wabuke, The Root
“One of the most anticipated books of this summer is from debut
novelist Yaa Gyasi, and all it will take to convince you the hype
is worth it is reading some of these
powerful Homegoing quotes about family, identity, and
history. An emotional, beautiful, and remarkable
book, Homegoing should definitely be on your summer
reading list . . . . With characters you won't be able to forget,
and stories that will haunt you long after you turn the last
page, Homegoing is stunning — a truly heartbreaking
work of literary genius. It honestly and elegantly tries to unravel
the complicated history of not only a family through the
generations, but a nation through the years of outside conflict,
inner turmoil, and one of the darker pieces of the past.”
—Sadie L. Trombetta, Bustle
Ask a Question About this Product More... |