Homegoing

Winner of the NBCC's John Leonard First Book Prize
A New York Times 2016 Notable Book
One of Oprah's 10 Favorite Books of 2016
NPR's Debut Novel of the Year
One of Buzzfeed's Best Fiction Books Of 2016
One of Time's Top 10 Novels of 2016

"Homegoing is an inspiration." --Ta-Nehisi Coates

The unforgettable New York Times best seller begins with the story of two half-sisters, separated by forces beyond their control: one sold into slavery, the other married to a British slaver. Written with tremendous sweep and power, Homegoing traces the generations of family who follow, as their destinies lead them through two continents and three hundred years of history, each life indeliably drawn, as the legacy of slavery is fully revealed in light of the present day.

Effia and Esi are born into different villages in eighteenth-century Ghana. Effia is married off to an Englishman and lives in comfort in the palatial rooms of Cape Coast Castle. Unbeknownst to Effia, her sister, Esi, is imprisoned beneath her in the castle's dungeons, sold with thousands of others into the Gold Coast's booming slave trade, and shipped off to America, where her children and grandchildren will be raised in slavery. One thread of Homegoing follows Effia's descendants through centuries of warfare in Ghana, as the Fante and Asante nations wrestle with the slave trade and British colonization. The other thread follows Esi and her children into America. From the plantations of the South to the Civil War and the Great Migration, from the coal mines of Pratt City, Alabama, to the jazz clubs and dope houses of twentieth-century Harlem, right up through the present day, Homegoing makes history visceral, and captures, with singular and stunning immediacy, how the memory of captivity came to be inscribed in the soul of a nation.

Author: Yaa Gyasi
Publisher: Knopf Publishing Group
Published: 06/07/2016
Pages: 320
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.30lbs
Size: 9.50h x 6.50w x 1.30d
ISBN: 9781101947135

Accelerated Reader:
Reading Level: 6
Point Value: 18
Interest Level: Upper Grade
Quiz #/Name: 182425 / Homegoing


Review Citation(s):
Library Journal Prepub Alert 02/01/2016 pg. 54
Publishers Weekly 02/01/2016
Kirkus Reviews 03/15/2016
Booklist 05/01/2016 pg. 73
Library Journal 06/01/2016 pg. 83
Shelf Awareness 06/21/2016
School Library Journal 10/01/2016 pg. 119
School Library Journal 12/01/2016 pg. 45
Shelf Awareness 12/09/2016
Library Journal 02/01/2016

About the Author
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.