Yaa Gyasi’s second novel, Transcendent Kingdom, is now out here in the UK.
Long-time readers of my writing will recall my admiration for Gyasi’s first book, Homegoing. And I was so looking forward to her second that I had it imported from the US, months ahead of its UK release.
Here’s what I wrote about it in December:
Long-time readers of my writing will recall my admiration for Gyasi’s first book, Homegoing. And I was so looking forward to her second that I had it imported from the US, months ahead of its UK release.
Here’s what I wrote about it in December:
Transcendent Kingdom is a rich, beautiful novel. The numerous dimensions Gyasi explores probe your mind throughout: the mother-daughter bond, sibling love and protectiveness, and the unresolvable relationship between science and religion. Transcendent Kingdom is a penetrating story of love and loss, hope and despair. It’s wonderful.
This is a novel I can definitely recommend.
And speaking of recommendations, here’s a snippet from an insightful interview in The Times with Gyasi:
And speaking of recommendations, here’s a snippet from an insightful interview in The Times with Gyasi:
What’s immediately striking is how different it is from Homegoing: its scope is pared back, its register intimate — not many writers can switch style like this. Narrated by Gifty, a PhD neuroscientist at Stanford, it turns on her relationship with her depressive mother. Flashbacks show how Gifty’s brother’s addiction to opioids and death by overdose ravages the family. What it is like to be a black African immigrant in America is key in all of this.
Published in America last year, the novel sailed straight into the New York Times bestseller list. Reviews on both sides of the Atlantic so far have been glowing. Gyasi seems to be pulling off the notoriously difficult second album feat. She’s too level-headed to do anything but chuckle a polite thank you when I bring this up. The hype around Homegoing felt to her like a “double-edged sword”, she says, and her way of dealing with the mantle thrust on her is to keep her head down. “It’ll be there one book, then gone the next book,” she says solemnly.
You can read The Guardian’s review too that provides a nice overview of the story.