Yaa Gyasi

Bahni Turpin

A novel

Transcendent Kingdom

**From the bestselling author of Homegoing comes a searing novel of love and loss, addiction and redemption, straight from the heart of contemporary America** As a child Gifty would ask her parents to tell the story of their journey from Ghana to Alabama, seeking escape in myths of heroism and romance. When her father and brother succumb to the hard reality of immigrant life in the American South, their family of four becomes two - and the life Gifty dreamed of slips away. Years later, desperate to understand the opioid addiction that destroyed her brother's life, she turns to science for answers. But when her mother comes to stay, Gifty soon learns that the roots of their tangled traumas reach farther than she ever thought. Tracing her family's story through continents and generations will take her deep into the dark heart of modern America. ______________________________________________________ 'I would say that Transcendent Kingdom is a novel for our time (and it is) but it is so much more than that. It is a novel for all times. The splendor and heart and insight and brilliance contained in the pages holds up a light the rest of us can follow' Ann Patchett 'Absolutely transcendent. A gorgeously woven narrative . . . not a word or idea out of place. THE RANGE. I am quite angry this is so good' Roxane Gay 'A stirringly gifted writer' New York Times

I've seen enough in a mouse to understand transcendence, holiness, redemption. In people, I've seen even more.

"What's the point of all of this?" is a question that separates humans from other animals. Our curiosity around this issue has sparked everything from science to literature to philosophy to religion. When the answer to this question is "Because God deemed it so,” we might feel comforted. But what if the answer to this question is "I don't know," or worse still, “Nothing"?

"A novel about faith, science, religion, and family that tells the deeply moving portrait of a family of Ghanaian immigrants ravaged by depression and addiction and grief, narrated by a fifth year candidate in neuroscience at Stanford school of medicine studying the neural circuits of reward seeking behavior in mice"--

Dora Tominic

I want more of Yaa Gyasi’s writing for breakfast, lunch and dinner

Eva Ströberg

This book goes deeper in my head than I thought.

Religious parents? Check. Losing my own faith? Check. I never thought about it in this way until I picked up this book and read it.

Sonia Grgas

Francine Corry

I have been wanting to read Yaa Gyasi's Transcendent Kingdom since it was first released because I loved her first book, Homegoing and thought she had so much promise as an author. Transcedent KIngdom is a different book which explores themes of religion and science and how they both give meaning to life in diverse ways. It also examines love and the effect of grief on our life. It also deals with addiction and its effects.

That is a lot to tie together in one nifty package, but I think Gyasi does a good job of it. The book may have veered into the technical, philosophical and academic a bit too much, but I appreciated that.

I thought that Gifty a Stanford PhD candidate in neuroscience is a really interesting and well-developed character.

I'm looking forward to reading more by Yaa Gyasi.

“The truth is we don’t know what we don’t know. We don’t even know the questions we need to ask in order to find out, but when we learn one tiny little thing, a dim light comes on in a dark hallway, and suddenly a new question appears. We spend decades, centuries, millennia, trying to answer that one question so that another dim light will come on.”
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A deeply emotional story that grapples with so many heavy issues like immigration, addiction, loss, trying to consolidate religion in modern life, depression, and isolation… Reading this felt like witnessing something very personal and heartbreaking. The shame and suffering of witnessing a loved one going down the fatal spiral of addiction and/or depression is really handled well, in my opinion.

However, as thoughtfully written as it is, I felt that it was also way too heavy on the religious perspective for my personal preference, so I just didn't enjoy it as much. This is by no means a criticism of the story or the writing at all, it just didn’t appeal to me due its focus on spirituality. 
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3.5/5

Cody Degen

Ann Gabrielle

Gifty is a sixth-year PhD candidate in neuroscience at 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 grief--a novel about faith, science, religion, love. Exquisitely written, emotionally searing, this is an exceptionally powerful follow-up to Gyasi's phenomenal debut.

jooooo-riaan

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. 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 grief—a novel about faith, science, religion, love. Exquisitely written, emotionally searing, this is an exceptionally powerful follow-up to Gyasi's phenomenal debut.

risa

i liked it a lot but something about the ending blindsided me (not in a good way). i just feel like it came out of nowhere and it skipped A Lot to get there so suddenly

Karis Ryu

idk how to words, but perhaps the taste in my mouth is best described through the following: IF doubt is faith, THEN gifty believes(?)

Jeremy Wang

yaa gyasi’s prose somehow manages to land both tender and blistering, and this blurring of duality runs throughout the entire book; in gifty’s voice, gyasi melts together the technical and the spiritual, managing to capture on the page that rare mind which is able to see God in every aspect of his creation. 

and that’s the great tragedy of this book, that someone so gifted with eyes to see cannot bring herself to look clearly. of course, it’s completely understandable given her background, but that only compounds the tragedy. what have we christians in america done?

parallel to this spiritual confusion, though, runs a continuous thread of hope; that answers can be found, that life is worth continuing even in the face of seemingly insurmountable grief. in gifty’s mother i found an odd parallel to fugui from 活着, people who simply endure, regardless of the shape of that endurance. 

i’m left wondering what gifty’s motivating question really is: is her life’s endeavor really an attempt to understand why some people can’t seem to give up on God?

“I sat there in that lodge, reduced to a stump, wondering what would become of me.”

charisa

man, i forgot how much i love yaa gyasi’s writing. UGH it’s just so inexpressibly rich. in high school, Homegoing was one of my favorite books; i’m somewhat relieved that her taut, ruminative storytelling was not a singular instance, but simply characteristic of her writing as a whole. 

spoilers aside, i’ve never read a book like this before. to examine science and religion (specifically christianity) in tandem and in tension with the topics of race, addiction, and family dynamics is beyond ambitious, and yet gyasi handles each dimension with grace and thoughtful honesty. i can’t imagine many other authors weaving together such a cohesive, yet complex narrative around such contentious issues. 

please, let’s discuss the ending together, and gifty’s asymptotic relationship with faith! i need to talk to someone about this — when wanting to want to believe becomes not enough.

Beatrice

Actual rating: 4.5/5

I loved Homegoing, so when I heard Yaa Gyasi was due to release a new book I jumped at the chance to read it. And I was not disappointed. Transcendent Kingdom is in many ways different from Homegoing, although some of the same themes of family, belonging and identity are echoed here as well, but it is nevertheless a captivating and emotional read that confirms Yaa Gyasi as a great author - and a must-read one for me.

Transcendent Kingdom is narrated by Gifty in a non-linear way, moving seamlessly between childhood memories, her present life and her reflections on life and its meaning, science, religion and lots more. I'm not usually a fan of non-linear narration so I was a bit worried about this going in, but to my surprise I actually got into the style quite quickly and I felt it worked perfectly as a reflection of Gifty's emotional and mental state.

Gifty was a really compelling character. Her struggle to make sense of life and loss, looking at religion and then science to provide answers to explain her deep suffering and grief, and to find ways to avoid it happening to others, made for a highly emotional and multilayered read. Some of the detail of both Gifty's experiments and her religious experience felt like it was a bit too much for me, and took me away from the main reflections, but that's just personal preference.

This is an emotionally charged book, dealing with themes such as addiction, loss and grief, migration, discrimination, and mental health. Despite that (or maybe because it doesn't shy away from difficult topics), it is an engrossing read. The easy flow of Yaa Gyasi's beautiful style drew me right into Gifty's mind, asking with her, how do you keep going when your whole world comes crashing down around you?

CW: drug addiction, death, grief, mental ill health, racism

For this and more reviews, visit Book for Thought.

I received an e-arc of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. This did not affect my opinion of the book in any way.

heleen de boever

highly contemplative but not so much that it feels detached from reality.

A TODAY SHOW #ReadWithJenna BOOK CLUB PICK! INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER 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. 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 grief--a novel about faith, science, religion, love. Exquisitely written, emotionally searing, this is an exceptionally powerful follow-up to Gyasi's phenomenal debut.

Lynn

Thoroughly enjoyed this. I specifically loved the science analogies and intricate discussions about the intersectionality of religion, biology and psychiatry. Gifty’s personality keeps you at a distance all the while you read diary entries and get a look into her deepest fears, desires and beliefs. The family dynamics that Gyasi sets up in this book and explores without needing to fix them or pose solutions, but simply observing and reflecting on what is and has been. This was a truly unique take on a ‘fighter’ type of protagonist without it feeling overdone and preachy. The slow pacing of this book did throw me off a little, as well as the underdevelopment of characters outside of Gifty’s immediate nucleus family. At times it was also hard to notice when shifts into the past were made, without literary or visual cues to guide you, which was disorienting - therefore it remains a 4 star read.

Yaa Gyasi's stunning follow-up to her acclaimed national bestseller Homegoing is a powerful, raw, intimate, deeply layered novel about a Ghanaian family in Alabama. Gifty is a fifth year candidate in neuroscience at Stanford University's School of Medicine studying reward-seeking behaviour 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 a knee 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 hard science 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 grief--a novel about faith, science, religion, love. Exquisitely written and emotionally searing, this is an exceptionally powerful follow-up to Gyasi's phenomenal debut.

Lyric Hooey

This one was a little tough for me just because it hits a few trigger points but ultimately I’m very glad I read this. It is beautifully written. It’s an important story about an important perspective. Racism, religion, mental illness are all themes that seemed to play into a bigger theme of Gifty forgiving themselves and figuring out who they are, and want to be.

A powerful story on addiction, racism, loss, love, and resilience. 

Genevieve Hayes

Liz B

This is a very different kind of book compared to Homegoing, so I can understand why some reviewers don't compare it favorably if that's what they were expecting. But... it's a very different kind of book, and I loved it for what it is. Gyasi is so masterful at immersing you in a world that is not your own and the story was absolutely beautiful and heartbreaking.

Taylor

I loved Homegoing, so I was entirely thrilled to see a new release from Yaa Gyasi. In the vein of another great book published this year, Brandon Taylor's Real Life, her story is even more personal and heart-wrenching in the context of impostor syndrome in graduate school. The struggle (and ultimately, tragedy) of loving an addict and living with depression both rang entirely true, and I adored every moment even when it made me cry.

Cindy Lieberman

Yaa Gyasi is not having a sophomore slump! This novel is strong and lovely with its interwoven themes of the immigrant experience and racism, the opioid crisis and the South, nature and nurture. Thoughtful and emotional writing about what we remember, what we admit, what we share, and about asking for help.

Connor 

Lauren Wightman

My only complaint is that the end felt very abrupt

Celeste Richardson

Transcendent Kingdom is a beautifully written look into the life of Gifty, a first generation Ghanan American neuroscientist. We meet Gifty in the present and follow along as she revisits her past, seeing her faith in God in a losing battle against the traumas of her childhood. We see her brother’s battle with and surrender to addiction, and her mother’s same relationship with depression, and we are shown how these battles and losses helped in large part to lead her to her career in the sciences. 

Gifty’s story is interesting and moving, but the emotion it most evoked within me as I read was sadness. While her remembrances of her brother and mother were painful, what truly hurt me the most to read about was her church experiences. With everything I’ve gone through in my life, I always knew that I had this huge support system in not just God, but my church family. Gifty should have had that, but instead faced judgment and racism from those sharing the pews around her. I think, even more than her losses, this treatment is what most compromised her faith in God. 

Ghandi, when asked his views on Christianity, once said: “I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.” In my opinion, these are some of the saddest words that have ever been spoken. A Christian’s calling is to be Jesus’s hands and feet in the world, to be the lens through whom the world can see Christ. The Christians of whom Ghandi spoke, as well as the fictional congregants of Gifty’s childhood church, are utter failures in this regard. And such is the case all too heartbreakingly often.

There was an amazing amount of depth to be found in Transcendent Kingdom’s less than 300 pages. And made me think, and it made me feel. But, most of all, it made me mourn. I closed the book with a heavy heart and an active mind.

Fraser Simons

I’m of two minds on this book. On the one hand, what relationships are depicted in this book feel incredibly well characterized and developed. This is the richness of the novel that you need to sink into to enjoy it. Especially because it’s a first person narration on the opposite end of verisimilitude; incredibly selective in its framing in service to the exploration of theme rooted in character dynamics. 

On the other hand, this framing makes it feel very difficult to feel time and place, and even to get a full sense of character for the protagonist. It feels incredibly siloed and therefor, unreal at times, or maybe emotionally manipulative, since there is no grounding. It also does not feel at all like the voice is a sixth-year PhD candidate. It sounds like a young adult composition, too simple at a sentence by sentence level. When there are interesting thoughts, just by virtue of contrast to the usual simple structure, they feel almost like epiphanies because of the defaultism in language the diction cultivates throughout. 

On a conceptual level though, Transcendent Kingdom is incredibly well executed. It is very tight thematically—to the point where everything else feels perfunctory. So I feel enjoyment and engagement will really vary depending on how interested you are in the exploration of ignorance and faith, enlightenment and education, and the vibrancy of a life orbiting close associations with addiction, depression, and responsibility rooted in family dynamics.

Transcendent Kingdom A novel

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