A review by syllareads
Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

challenging emotional hopeful inspiring sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Yaa Gyasi steals us away into a book that follows an overarching family tree, from its roots in Africa all the way to its many branches coming into their own in America, and tackles several harsh topics on the way along. It's almost unbelievable that this is her first novel; the prose, the construction of the book itself, with each main character getting one chapter to tell their story, or at least the most impactful moments in their lives, everything about this novel sucks you right in and spits you back out into a world of joy, and sadness, guilt, and letting-go, coming into your own despite the world beating down on you (or perhaps because of it, a way to spite everyone around you and maybe yourself).

I didn't expect this book to be structured the way it was (I knew virtually nothing about it beforehand) but I highly enjoyed myself reading it and fully recommend it (head the Content Warnings tho!). Gyasi tackles a lot of heavy topics in this; one branch of the overarching family tree specializes in slave trade with the British Empire, while the other gets sucked into the trade themselves, leaving Africa for good very early on. It's a tale of suffering and loss, but also of holding on to your roots and coming back to them, maybe late in life, maybe only tentatively and halfway through, but still: it's worth it, to face it all and let it soak in.

And as one of the characters teaches his students: We cannot know how history went down since we haven't been there, we can only listen to those who have. And whenever we do, we need to remember those whose voices were not remembered by the flow of time, and why that might be.
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