Homegoing

This novel boldly pushes the scope and possibilities of what historical fiction can do. Intimate yet expansive . . . one of the many extraordinary achievements of Gyasi's enviable debut is the writer's ability to make all the myriad descendants here - enslaved mothers, carpenters, academics - equally worthy of the reader's sustained engagement and compassion

Michael Donkor

[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

Marie Claire

[A] sprawling epic... brims with compassion... In Homegoing, Yaa Gyasi has given rare and heroic voice to the missing and suppressed

NPR

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

A marvellous novel

Starred Publishers Weekly

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.

Bookforum

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'

One of the richest, most rewarding reads of 2016

Elle

Rich, epic. . . Each chapter is tightly plotted, and there are suspenseful, even spectacular climaxes

New York Magazine

Shows the unmistakable touch of a gifted writer

The New Yorker

Spectacular

Taiye Selasi

Terrific

Ann Patchett

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

San Francisco Chronicle

Wildly ambitious debut by a 26-year-old writer . . . It's impossible not to admire the ambition and scope of Homegoing

Michiko Kakutani, New York Times

An astonishing epic debut

Observer

Homegoing is remarkable...the writing at the end of the book is every bit as vital as that at the start...she has produced a contemporary classic - one you'll actually want to read

Daily Mail

Homegoing is a novel I wish I could have read when I was a young woman. An intelligent, beautiful and healing read, destined to become a classic

Zadie Smith

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.

Buzzfeed

Homegoing is stunning - a truly heartbreaking work of literary genius

Bustle

Homegoing is one hell of a book... I recommend Homegoing without reservation. Definitely a must read for 2016.

Roxane Gay

A bold and ambitious debut...full of fire and youthful confidence

Daily Express

A bold tale of slavery for a new 'Roots' generation

Washington Post

A confident, vivid, engrossingtale [that] winds towards a moving conclusion

Radio Times

A fascinating view of the history of slavery...Gyasi gives voice to suppressed stories, and that feels hugely important....it certainly deserves our attention

Sunday Times

A future classic and a novel that you'll want to pass on to everyone you know...the real deal...2017 is set to be the year of Homegoing

Stylist

A hypnotic debut novel by... a stirringly gifted young writer

New York Times Book Review

A memorable epic of changing families and changing nations

Chicago Tribune

A searing indictment of racism and a very impressive debut

Sunday Express

A wonderfully evocative and compassionate novel - one that shows deftness, depth and maturity. Homegoing is a gift to its readers and a treasure to cherish

Petina Gappah, Financial Times

Ambition and talent don't always go hand-in-hand; here they unquestionably do

Daily Mail

Ambitious, superbly written, important - don't miss this one

Woman & Home

An epic debut novel

Good Housekeeping

An epic saga

Scotsman

Astoundingly ambitious

New Books

Brilliant

Sunday Telegraph

Encompassing events major and minor, but skilfully skipping the civil war, it humanises big issues by giving us unforgettable characters. It could not be more relevant or needed

Damian Barr, Observer Books of the Year

Entwining history, politics and personal events, this is an ambitious novel that is, and will continue to be, highly culturally relevant

Big Issue

Epic...astonishing...page-turning

Entertainment Weekly

Extraordinary

Glamour

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

Elle

Gyasi has created a masterpiece which is educational, highly ambitious and extremely touching

The i

Gyasi imbues indigenous life with richness and dignity, in a style that owes something - though by no means everything - to Chinua Achebe...it serves as the engine for a powerful message

Daily Telegraph

Gyasi's debut novel has a distinctive strength and courage ... a descendent of Alex Haley's Roots and Toni Morrison's Beloved, an extended response to Joyce Carol Oates's Last Hundred Years trilogy

Times Literary Supplement

Remarkable, is a devastating account of America....explores horror without ever losing sight of humanity or hope

Sunday Times 3 To Watch

Gyasi's widescreen view of history powerfully drives home her view that we are all responsible for ourselves and for each other ... a highly compassionate feat of storytelling

Metro

Hands down the best book I've read in months...I can't wait to see what Yaa Gyasi does next

Grazia

Here is a book to help us remember. It is well worth its weight

Guardian

Hugely courageous and really important

Sathnam Sanghera

Intriguing debut...a noble enterprise

Mail on Sunday

It is written with such maturity and beauty, that it is hard to believe it is Gyasi's first published work...Gyasi has created a masterpiece which is educational, highly ambitious and extremely touching. Her writing style is raw and intense and leaves one desperate to see what work she will produce in the future

Press Association

Rarely does a grand, sweeping epic plumb interior lives so thoroughly. Yaa Gyasi's Homegoing is a marvel.

Dave Wheeler, associate editor, Shelf Awareness

Rarely does a grand, sweeping epic plumb interior lives so thoroughly. Yaa Gyasi's Homegoing is a marvel

Shelf Awareness

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.

Vogue US

The hype is justified

Emerald Street

The powerful narrative of Yaa Gyasi's accomplished first novel do more than reveal the history that still troubles the United States. They make that history immediate

Harper's Bazaar

The structure is fantastically strong, but it would have been nothing without Gyasi's ability to bring each character alive. At every turn she resists cliché and dogma ... she deftly weaves in just enough historical information without sacrificing its complexity ... Homegoing has something better than perfection, and that is a touch of magic... [Gyasi is] the right artist at the right time

Alice O'Keefe, New Statesman

This is, hand on heart, a completely brilliant novel...a brilliant debut. If this isn't shortlisted for some prizes next year, I'll be disappointed

Stylist's pick of the best new books for 2017

This unputdownable tale spans three continents and seven generations to tell the story of a family and of America itself

Reader's Digest

Through her words we come to understand parts of history that are sometimes ignored

Pride

Toni Morrison's Beloved spoke to a generation. Yaa Gyasi's Homegoing will do the same for a new one. In a word, it's brilliant. And not just "for a debut"

The Pool

Tracing the descendants of two women across seven generations, this unflinching debut from Ghanaian-American author Yaa Gyasi examines the lingering effects of slavery from the 18th-century Gold Coast to the US at the turn of the 21st century

Financial Times

Vivid and ambitious debut

Sunday Express

While the issues she wrestles with are heavy, her writing is a joy....Now, more than ever, we need books like this one

Red

Yaa Gyasi establishes herself as an exciting new literary voice with a powerful debut

BookPage

Ambitious, multi-generational saga of the effects of the slave trade

Guardian Books of the Year