Description
**From the bestselling author of Homegoing**
‘A BOOK OF BLAZING BRILLIANCE’ Washington Post
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As a child Gifty would ask her parents to tell the story of their journey from Ghana to Alabama, seeking escape in myths of heroism and romance. When her father and brother succumb to the hard reality of immigrant life in the American South, their family of four becomes two – and the life Gifty dreamed of slips away. Years later, desperate to understand the opioid addiction that destroyed her brother’s life, she turns to science for answers.
But when her mother comes to stay, Gifty soon learns that the roots of their tangled traumas reach farther than she ever thought. Tracing her family’s story through continents and generations will take her deep into the dark heart of modern America. Transcendent Kingdom is a searing story story of love, loss and redemption, and the myriad ways we try to rebuild our lives from the rubble of our collective pasts.
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‘A piercing story of faith, science and the opioid crisis…Transcendent Kingdom really sings. There’s bravery as well as beauty here’ Observer
‘Absolutely transcendent. A gorgeously woven narrative . . . not a word or idea out of place. THE RANGE. I am quite angry this is so good’ Roxane Gay
‘I would say that Transcendent Kingdom is a novel for our time (and it is) but it is so much more than that. It is a novel for all times. The splendor and heart and insight and brilliance contained in the pages holds up a light the rest of us can follow’ Ann Patchett
Sarah Turner –
As a huge fan of Homegoing ( which I recommend to everyone) I was excited for a new novel by Yaa Gyasi. For some reason it’s taken me a few months to get round to reading it. I think If I’m honest I was put off by the title, and maybe the cover. It somehow didn’t seem to pull me in. But I’m grateful for the Women’s Prize judges once again who by longlisting this for the 2021 prize gave me a bit more insight on the contents.
I loved it.
Weaving together neuroscience, religion, addiction, race, family in an exquisitely written and short novel there is so much to admire in these pages. The story of Gifti who grows up in Alabama, alongside her mother, father and brother Nana who all, unlike her, lived originally in Ghana. Despite being born in the US with little connection to Ghana, Gifti is pulled between two worlds, two cultures, fitting into neither comfortably. Family tragedy with addiction and mental health struggles leave her further isolated, but it is the bond with her brother that is so tenderly drawn that broke my heart.