Book Club July 2025- Homegoing
By: Yaa Gyasi
Published Year: 2016
Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
Pages: 305
Summary (Provided by Goodreads): A novel of breathtaking sweep and emotional power that traces three hundred years in Ghana and along the way also becomes a truly great American novel. Extraordinary for its exquisite language, its implacable sorrow, its soaring beauty, and for its monumental portrait of the forces that shape families and nations, Homegoing heralds the arrival of a major new voice in contemporary fiction.
Two half-sisters, 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.
Generation after generation, Yaa Gyasi's magisterial first novel sets the fate of the individual against the obliterating movements of time, delivering unforgettable characters whose lives were shaped by historical forces beyond their control. Homegoing is a tremendous reading experience, not to be missed, by an astonishingly gifted young writer.
What I thought
I can’t even really remember how this book crossed my radar. I just remember reading the summary and hearing rave reviews so I added it to my list. I had previously read Transcendent Kingdom b Gyasi and was underwhelmed but this one spoke to me. Especially as a Book Club choice.
This story starts in the 18th century in Ghana following two (unbeknownst to them) half sisters. One is married to an English general while the other is sold into slavery. The novel follows each of these familial lines through their offspring until the early 2000s. The story starts with a chapter from Effia’s perspective, then movies to Esi’s. From there, each chapter alternates between Effia’s descendants and Esi’s.
I didn’t pick up on the format of the story before I started reading it, so I was a little confused when the third chapter started with a completely different character in a new timeline, but I got used to it pretty quickly. It’s almost like a novel of short stories but there is a thread that connects every other chapter. I am a little surprised by how much I enjoyed th format since I don’t usually enjoy short stories, but I think Gyasi does an amazing job of still making it feel like one cohesive novel.
I almost feel like I’m not going to do justice talking about the importance of this book. It was fascinating reading about Ghana and their struggles against British Colonialism balanced against the slavery and Civil Rights movement in the US. I initially expected this story to tell more about how staying in Ghana was all roses and sunshine while the family line that was sold into slavery was all hardships and struggles. However, I was very surprised. The story showed struggles and successes on both sides.
While I don’t know if I would’ve appreciated reading this book in high school, it very much feels like a story that should be read and deeply discussed in high school. There are so many threads and lessons I want to analyze. I’m glad that I picked it as a book club book so that I have people to discuss it with!
What Book Club Thought
Book club all really seemed to enjoy this one! It was so nice to be able to discuss the history and growth of each of the familial lines. The interesting thing was that we did have a discussion about the audiobook versus reading the physical book and decided this was one of those rare occasions where reading the physical book made a difference/was a little easier. The physical book has a family tree at the beginning, and while I didn’t reference back to it, other book club members found it helpful to keeping everyone straight. I think this is one of those few books that lives up to its hype! I would highly recommend reading this one. It might seem a bit dark or heavy based off of the description but it definitely is not.