Book Review: HomeGoing

It’s world book day and book lovers out there are dressing up as their favorite book characters but I choose to celebrate it in another way…. It’s time for me to wax lyrically about a book that I’ve just read. And absolutely loved.

This is will be my second book review. the first, was about Eyo, the African Lolita….a book on modern day sex slavery and human trafficking.
Today’s book, Homegoing, is by 27- year old Ghanian Yaa Gyasi. And let me just say, wow…..wow…..wow!
A book psychic (the best kind of psychic) pointed me to this awesome book…bet you didn’t know these existed…and I just loved it. I could definitely see myself rereading it. I believe that’s the highest form of praise from a book lover.
A good friend of mine sent me the eBook version of this.

Homegoing is a tale about two half-sisters, Esi and Effia that are unaware of each other’s existence as they are separated by forces beyond their control. Esi is sold into slavery while Effia is married off to a British slaver.
Esi is held in the most inhumane conditions beneath a castle that houses the African wives of the British Soldiers, before being shipped off to America.
The book, that opens in the 1770s Ghana (Gold Coast) then traces the generations of the families of the two sisters that follow, as destiny, or is it fate, leads them through two different continents, Africa and America and three hundred years of history without the story feeling rushed and incomplete. There are two threads in this story…One thread of that follows Effia’s descendants through Ghana, as the two kingdoms of the Fante and the Asante wrestle with the slave trade and British colonization. The other thread follows Esi and her descendants as they grapple with slavery. From the cotton plantations of the South to the Civil War and the Great Migration, the coal mines of Pratt City, to Harlem, right up through the present day where the story comes full circle when two descendants of Effia and Esi finally meet.
It deals with issues of slavery, racism, British colonization, sexism, the things people will do in the name of God and a host of other things.
It’s a socially relevant novel especially in these times that are racially charged and it is so beautifully written. I can’t wait to see/read what other work Yaa Gyasi is going to write….its clear though that she’s going to have a successful career as an author and she’s got a big fan in me!

Verdict: please read this book…Pleeeeeeease! I have the epub file…just ask and I’ll share.