Penguin presents the unabridged downloadable audiobook edition of Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi, narrated by Dominic Hoffman.
Effia and Esi: two sisters with two very different destinies. One sold into slavery, one a slave trader’s wife. The consequences of their fate reverberate through the generations that follow.
Taking us from the Gold Coast of Africa to the cotton-picking plantations of Mississippi, from the missionary schools of Ghana to the dive bars of Harlem, spanning three continents and seven generations, Yaa Gyasi has written a miraculous novel – the intimate, gripping story of a brilliantly vivid cast of characters and, through their lives, the very story of America itself. Epic in its canvas and intimate in its portraits, Homegoing is a searing and profound debut from a masterly new writer.
Inheritance of loss and separation This has to be one of the best books I’ve ever read, if not the best. Debut author Yaa Gyasi weaves these disconnected characters together with such care that they seem fully fleshed even though you only get such a brief glimpse of each of them.Â
Read it for the history I am giving this book 3 1/2 stars. This is the 3rd book I have read recently which spans several centuries and many generations of more than one family tree. Books written in this vein have too many characters to even keep track of or remember, let alone to get really involved with. There are many interesting stories and characters who would have been enough for one whole book dedicated to their story alone, but as soon as I got interested in their story, the author was off to a different…
Starts in fire, ends in water; a story of the horrors we inflict and the promise of redemption. Astonishing. Homegoing begins in fire, as a house slave sets herself free by burning her master’s African village to the ground, and ends in the ocean, as two of her two descendants – from two completely different lineages – find, finally, perhaps, a sort of reconciliation. In between, Ms. Gyasi traces the entire history of Africa and African-Americans. For the slave, Maame, had two daughters: the daughter of her captor, who she left behind in the burning village; and the daughter of her real husband…