Transcendent Kingdom
Shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2021
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4.0 • 25 Ratings
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- $15.99
Publisher Description
SHORTLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2021
**From the bestselling author of Homegoing**
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As a child Gifty would ask her parents to tell the story of their journey from Ghana to Alabama, seeking escape in myths of heroism and romance. When her father and brother succumb to the hard reality of immigrant life in the American South, their family of four becomes two - and the life Gifty dreamed of slips away.
Years later, desperate to understand the opioid addiction that destroyed her brother's life, she turns to science for answers. But when her mother comes to stay, Gifty soon learns that the roots of their tangled traumas reach farther than she ever thought. Tracing her family's story through continents and generations will take her deep into the dark heart of modern America.
Transcendent Kingdom is a searing story of love, loss and redemption, and the myriad ways we try to rebuild our lives from the rubble of our collective pasts.
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'Absolutely transcendent. A gorgeously woven narrative . . . not a word or idea out of place' Roxane Gay
'A piercing story of faith, science and the opioid crisis . . . There's bravery as well as beauty here' Observer
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Gyasi's meticulous, psychologically complex second novel (after Homegoing) examines the consequences of a Ghanian family's immigration to Huntsville, Ala. Gifty, the only member of the family born in the United States, is six years into a doctorate in neuroscience at Stanford, where she is attempting to see if she can alter the neural pathways leading to addiction and depression. Her project is motivated by the fate of her beloved older brother who died from a heroin overdose when she was in high school, and by the condition of her depressed mother, who is staying at Gifty's apartment. Though she now determinedly puts her faith in science, Gifty still feels the pull of her evangelical upbringing, and she struggles to reconcile the two opposing belief systems while juggling her dissertation and care for her mother, plus a growing attraction to her awkward lab mate. The narrative moves smoothly between the present and Gifty's childhood, with episodes such as a summer spent in Ghana with her aunt during a previous phase of her mother's depression rising in the background while Gifty works her way up in her field. Gyasi's constraint renders the emotional impact of the novel all the more powerful: her descriptions of the casual racism endured by the family, particularly at the hands of their nearly all-white church in Alabama, is more chilling for being so matter-of-fact. At once a vivid evocation of the immigrant experience and a sharp delineation of an individual's inner struggle, the novel brilliantly succeeds on both counts.
Customer Reviews
You only live once
Author
Ghanaian-American whose family moved to Alabama when she was an infant, so her father could complete his PhD in French of all things! He's now a Professor of French at the University of Alabama. Ms G was good at school too, graduated from Stanford, did an MFA at Iowa Writers Workshop, and now lives in, you guessed it, Brooklyn. Her debut novel, Homecoming (2016), published when she was 26, won the National Book Circle John Leonard Prize for best first book, the PEN/Hemingway Award for first book of fiction, a National Book Foundation "5 under 35" award, and the American Book Award. Add to that a Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise she received early in 2020, and I'm sure she was feeling no pressure whatsoever when this, her sophomore effort, dropped in September.
In brief
Gifty is the youngest child of a Ghanaian family that migrates to the US in search of a better life. They settle in Alabama (surprise, surprise), which is possibly not the best choice for African immigrants when it comes to adjustment and assimilation. Our gal is overshadowed when young by her popular, athletic older brother, who is Mom's favourite. Dad joins them for a while, then returns to Ghana to visit family and never comes back. Big bro gets hooked on opioids after suffering a sporting injury, eventually dying of an overdose after multiple attempts at rehab. Mum takes it kind of badly and gets addicted to happy pills. Gifty goes to university and becomes a neuroscientist. When we meet her, she is at Stanford, nearing the end of her doctorate studying reward seeking behaviour and addiction in mice, when her Mom lobs up in San Francisco following her latest meltdown. Yolo, Gifty. Cope.
Writing
First person by the protagonist with a wandering time line. Layered, finely crafted characterisation. Writing style that verges on exquisite at times - nary a wasted word - but can be rambling and self indulgent at others.
Bottom line
Homecoming was better IMHO.