Homegoing
The unforgettable New York Times best seller begins with the story of two half-sisters, separated by forces beyond their control: one sold into slavery, the other married to a British slaver. Written with tremendous sweep and power, Homegoing traces the generations of family who follow, as their destinies lead them through two continents and three hundred years of history, each life indelibly drawn, as the legacy of slavery is fully revealed in light of the present day.
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.
Source: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/533857/homegoing-by-yaa-gyasi/
Keywords/Themes
Slavery, colonialism, generational trauma, family, identity, diaspora, racism, heritage, history, resilience, belonging.
Book Review & Recommended Use in Classroom
Each chapter is like a short story that zooms in on one of the descendants of a family fractured by the Slave Trade and the long-term consequences of colonialism. Each shows a different facet of that trauma, demonstrates how history shapes the characters’ personal identity, and presents a variation of each generation’s renewed resilience. Although we meet each character only once, they make a lasting impression. Only the ending feels a bit flat.
I really liked reading this novel, but I am not sure I would want to read it as a whole with a class. Excerpts or single chapters could work really well, but the novel’s overall pace might be a bit tricky to work with in a classroom.
(Alexandra, April 2025)
Sensitive Content
This book includes vivid portrayals of the violence and trauma associated with slavery, including sexual violence, rape, and kidnapping. It also explores themes of domestic and political violence, racism and racialized abuse (including slurs and police brutality), substance use, child abuse, forced marriage, and traumatic loss.
About the Author
Yaa Gyasi was born in 1989 in Mampong, Ghana, and moved to the United States at age two when her father began teaching French at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. Her family later settled in Huntsville, Alabama, where Gyasi grew up as one of a few Black students in predominantly white schools, an experience that shaped her awareness of race and identity. She was an avid reader and began writing stories early in life, encouraged by a teacher who recognized her talent in the second grade. After high school, she attended Stanford University, earning a BA in English, and later completed an MFA at the Iowa Writers' Workshop. A 2009 trip to Ghana inspired her debut novel Homegoing (2016), which won several major literary awards and launched her into critical acclaim.
