Wow. This book was like a punch in the stomach. I'm sure I'll never look at the slave trade and its ramifications in the same way again. ( )

Homegoing, by Yaa Gyasi, is one of the most skilled and beautiful works of historical fiction I've ever read. Particularly I liked the ending of the book, which I will not spoil. It is difficult to find writers who can really finish a story well. They must look back as well as forward; swell the finale with the thematic elements of the book, and work magic in the heart of the reader so that they will wish to return to the story, or to the author's other stories, to see that mystical power wrought again. To do such a thing in one's first novel is a rare ability, and I am filled with something more vivid than respect, that something unnameable that bibliophiles spend their reading lives in search of. ( )

This book made me feel so many emotions. It has certainly created a lasting impression in me. ( )

I'm guilty. I started reading this book only because I was travelling in Africa (Madagascar) but I was convinced it would be "about blaming us whites for all the problems black people have". I couldn't be more wrong, and I'm really sorry.
Yaa Gyasi took 7 years to write this book, I'm not surprised. It's equally tremendously entertaining and well documented. It goes all the way from the beginning of slavery to the current issues coloured people face today in the US.
One of the best historic fiction works you will get to read. ( )

Deeply compelling novel that begins with two sisters in what is now Ghana in the eighteenth century. One is captured, transported across the Atlantic, and sold into slavery. The other marries a British colonial official, and remains in Africa. The novel traces the lives of their descendants up to the present, telling powerful stories and creating compelling characters. The parts that take place in Africa were fascinating to me, because I know so little about it. The parts that take place in the US were emotionally devastating. ( )