A review by leahthebooklover
Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful sad

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

4.5

Sweeping family generational story. Effia and Esi are half sisters, separated by circumstance and unknown to each other. They live on the Gold Coast of Africa in the 1700's. Effia is married to a British governor and lives in the Cape Coast Castle. Esi is a prisoner in that same castle's dungeon, soon to be shipped across the ocean as a slave. The story follows the generations that follow each of these women. None of the generations that follow have easy lives. Whether in Africa or America, their descendants suffer oppression, heartbreak, betrayal, deprivation, incarceration, addiction, discrimination and more - but still they endure. Each chapter highlights a different character, two from each generation, following the lineage through time. The final chapters are set in the present day, and somewhat reflect the author Yaa Gyasi's own experiences, growing up as a Ghanian immigrant in the United States. The inspiration for the book came when she visited Ghana to do research for a novel that was going to be about a mother and daughter. A serendipitous tour of the Cape Coast Castle changed her focus to the exploring the contrast between the upper class castle residents living in luxury and the enslaved residents of the dungeons. The lives of her characters illustrate her belief that "the dominoes loosed by slavery, colonialism and two centuries of institutionalized racism have been falling ever since. In "Homegoing", she wants readers to see these things came from those things which came from those things."