Picture of author.

Yaa Gyasi

Autor(a) de Homegoing

4+ Works 7,599 Membros 371 Reviews 5 Favorited

About the Author

Yaa Gyasi was born in Ghana and grew up in Huntsville, Alabama. She is a graduate of Stanford University with a BA in English and an MFA from the Iowa Writers' Workshop. Her debut novel, The Homegoing, became a New York Times best seller. In 2016, she was selected as one of the U.S. National Book mostrar mais Foundation's 'five under 35' new writers to watch. (Bowker Author Biography) mostrar menos

Inclui os nomes: Gyasi Yaa, Yaa Gyasi

Obras de Yaa Gyasi

Homegoing (2016) 5,522 cópias
Transcendent Kingdom (2020) 2,075 cópias
Hüljatud kuningriik (2022) 1 exemplar(es)
Drumul Spre Casa Carte Pentru Toti (2020) 1 exemplar(es)

Associated Works

The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story (2021) — Contribuinte — 1,461 cópias
Granta 139: Best of Young American Novelists (2017) — Contribuinte — 70 cópias

Etiquetado

Conhecimento Comum

Data de nascimento
1989
Sexo
female
Nacionalidade
USA
País (para mapa)
Ghana
Local de nascimento
Mampong, Ghana
Locais de residência
Huntsville, Alabama, USA
Berkeley, California, USA
Educação
Iowa Writers' Workshop
Stanford University (BA/English)
Premiações
National Book Foundation, 5 Under 35 Honoree (2016)
Pequena biografia
YAA GYASI was born in Ghana and raised in Huntsville, Alabama. She holds a BA in English from Stanford University and an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, where she held a Dean’s Graduate Research Fellowship. She lives in Berkeley, California.

Membros

Resenhas

https://www.instagram.com/p/C4EGVKuPBaf/

Yaa Gyasi - Transcendent Kingdom: As a sophomore effort, somewhat disappointing - she’s obviously an excellent writer, but this isn’t her story (see acknowledgments). #cursorybookreviews #cursoryreviews
½
 
Marcado
khage | outras 97 resenhas | Mar 3, 2024 |
Gyasi uses the stories of multiple characters through the generations to tell the history of the slave trade on Ghana's Cape Coast and to illustrate generational trauma. This is the way history should be taught, in my opinion, but I did not enjoy Gyasi's style of dropping the reader into a new character's storyline years later and then backtracking to explain how they became who they are. It's an important history to tell but not a terribly pleasant one to read.
 
Marcado
bookappeal | outras 272 resenhas | Feb 25, 2024 |
Never Ending Story

Media:Audio
Read by: Dominic Hoffman
Length: 13 hrs and 11 mins

Homegoing tells multiple stories from over 300years of Ghanian history through the eyes of fourteen people over seven generations and two continents, Africa and America.

The fourteen individuals are presented one by one, alternating between each branch of a family that splits between two Ghanaian nations.

The links between generations form two single strands from the huge binary tree whose root starts with one man and his progeny - the half-sisters raised separately. Subsequent generations are followed, two from each branch chosen from maternal or paternal lines with no apparent pattern.

Each generation-2 sister is given half of a black stone that is meant to be passed down to their children for generations. How this happens isn’t really dealt with but it’s no surprise that at least one half survives whole for 300 years.

At about generation-4 I started to lose track of the two branches of the family but did try to follow the stone. Admittedly this lack of pattern as to which two sub-branches would be in the next two chapters made the book interesting. I was forced to concentrate. Who had the stone? Who married who in the previous generation? What happened to the other children? I never knew who would pop up in the next chapters.

To add to the morass, there are multiple time shifts per chapter. I started counting them for interest. In at least one chapter time shifts within a single paragraph. While listening to Ness reminisce about her life, time shifts from her “present” situation to her early childhood memories, both presented “in the moment”. Later in Harlem I was in an apartment with Willie and in the next sentence I’m with her and her father “H” from previous generation in Pratt City. Stories within stories ending in jumps to another story in another time and place.

But it’s not the time-shifts that are distracting, it the overuse of metaphors. There are paragraphs of them. I started seeing them multiply along with the expanding generation-tree. As Gyasi herself writes “The family is like the forest: if you are outside it is dense; if you are inside you see that each tree has its own position.”.

I could forgive the grating metaphors. However the book failed to grab me. Especially in the early slave scenes where descriptions didn’t capture the period or place adequately. Early descriptions such as that of life in the British slave dungeon lacked substance and I remained outside, never feeling that the events were real though knowing they were.

A mediocre novel, adequately written, worth the effort if you have the time and don’t mind a mountain of metaphors.
… (mais)
½
 
Marcado
kjuliff | outras 272 resenhas | Feb 25, 2024 |
Gifty is a girl of evangelical faith who becomes apathetic towards God after the death of her brother and her mother's depression. As a young woman, Gifty pursues neuroscience as a way to understand something of her brother's death but all the while reflecting on what is missing in her spiritual life. Seeking a reconciliation of her beliefs, her Ghanian-American culture, and the lab work she does, she reflects on her past, her familial relationships and friendships. Introspective and contemplative, it's a novel incorporating Christian philosophy and identitarian values even as the protagonist tries to move beyond them-- only to circle back. Overall a tepid read and a disappointing sophomore effort from the author of Homegoing but it may appeal to those who are experiencing a crisis of faith.… (mais)
 
Marcado
Tanya-dogearedcopy | outras 97 resenhas | Feb 21, 2024 |

Listas

Prêmios

You May Also Like

Associated Authors

Estatísticas

Obras
4
Also by
3
Membros
7,599
Popularidade
#3,212
Avaliação
4.2
Resenhas
371
ISBNs
93
Idiomas
17
Favorito
5

Tabelas & Gráficos