Transcendent Kingdom - Yaa Gyasi

Transcendent Kingdom

By Yaa Gyasi

  • Release Date: 2020-09-01
  • Genre: Literary Fiction
Score: 4
4
From 637 Ratings

Description

NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER • A TODAY SHOW #ReadWithJenna BOOK CLUB PICK! • Finalist for the WOMEN'S PRIZE

Yaa Gyasi's stunning follow-up to her acclaimed national best seller Homegoing is a powerful, raw, intimate, deeply layered novel about a Ghanaian family in Alabama
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Gifty is a sixth-year PhD candidate in neuroscience at the Stanford University School of Medicine studying reward-seeking behavior in mice and the neural circuits of depression and addiction. Her brother, Nana, was a gifted high school athlete who died of a heroin overdose after an ankle injury left him hooked on OxyContin. Her suicidal mother is living in her bed. Gifty is determined to discover the scientific basis for the suffering she sees all around her. But even as she turns to the hard sciences to unlock the mystery of her family's loss, she finds herself hungering for her childhood faith and grappling with the evangelical church in which she was raised, whose promise of salvation remains as tantalizing as it is elusive.

Transcendent Kingdom is a deeply moving portrait of a family of Ghanaian immigrants ravaged by depression and addiction and griefa novel about faith, science, religion, love. Exquisitely written, emotionally searing, this is an exceptionally powerful follow-up to Gyasi's phenomenal debut.

Reviews

  • My main takeaway: The Mother

    4
    By jcmidnte
    Main character is socially awkward and full of questions that she wants answers to ….but avoids answering all questions directed at her. Her hard home life left her alone & unprepared when tragedy struck. The failings of a charismatic church plus her community left her hard-hearted, hurt and confused. She is a workaholic that keeps people away from her heart. Some try to get to know her as a friend & intimately but she emotionally detaches herself and dives further into her work. Her work about the science & the psychology of addicts were intriguing and written in a way that was straightforward without being too dry. Now to her mother. This part of the story left me sobbing as a mothers heart would. Working long hours with no appreciation, only to be abandoned by her husband, and left to raise two children without any help or true friends. Then having to watch her child go from a focused, successful athlete to a violent stranger stealing from her via drug addiction (which he eventually died from) was too much for her to bare. My heart broke. Her heart broke & she went into a deep depression. Not knowing how to press forward out of tragedy, or just simply not caring anymore, she gave up. She tried, she failed and she succumbed to the depression. She doesn’t take her own life, she just gave up & went numb … … even though she had another child that desperately needed her. Glad a bookclub I follow suggested this, it truly hurt my heart but shed light on the darkness that each family of an addict has to deal with. My (non-charismatic) heartfelt prayers towards all families in that similar situation.
  • Questions are essential

    4
    By SHAY789*
    As soon as I finished the book that is the very first thought I had. Gifty the main character I feel is a trauma filled individual with boundless questions on a endless pursuit for answers. The book is a good read, enlightening in a way. There are only two things slightly off putting about it; one the beginning is a bit slow and boring, but as we delve more into Gifty and her relationship with her past it becomes a really beautiful tale. Two; the ending. I feel we didn’t see enough character development for Gifty. We did see enough of her changing and evolving, unlearning all her trauma responses. It just jumps to her living happily ever after. But all this said it’s still a good read that makes you ask some of the questions Gifty does, crave those same answers . Still very worth the read!
  • Lovely Read

    5
    By Balsybelsy
    Another good on from this author.
  • Beautiful

    5
    By frank0em
    Was a bit slow to build but by the end I am transported by these characters, the small and big events that build a life.
  • Trials and Faith

    4
    By Richard Bakare
    Transcendent Kingdom asks many big questions about intersection of faith and are doubt when faced with trials. Where does science start and where does faith end? Can they coexist in the same mind let alone society? Fittingly, any answer is grey, murky, because it is too personal to have a clear answer. This book is also a powerful narrative on the bonds that tie us and how fragile they are. Easily unraveling with a slight gust of wind in the shape of a mis-prescribed medication or an American Dream that failed to meet expectations. But the bonds are also, transcendent; keeping the living and dead close together. I simply couldn’t put it down. I am now thoroughly hooked on anything Yaa Gyasi pens. We don’t know all the parts where them is some bit of autobiography and what parts flow from her imagination but all of it comes together in gripping a narrative that keeps the pages turning.
  • Gorgeous and intense

    5
    By Inknoemedontyou1234569
    This book had me feeling sad like I could feel the character’s emotions
  • Brilliant

    5
    By Sophiabiabia11111
    Searing. Gutting. Beautiful. Hopeful. Perfect. Cannot recommend enough.
  • Wish I could give it 6 stars

    5
    By kz_nyc
    Hauntingly beautiful. Gorgeously written.

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