Homegoing
By Yaa Gyasi
Vintage, Paperback, 9781101971062, May 2017, 320pp.

The Short of It:

A story about two women, living very different lives and how their lives form the generations to come.

The Rest of It:

Ghana, eighteenth century: two half sisters are born into different villages, each unaware of the other. One will marry an Englishman and lead a life of comfort in the palatial rooms of the Cape Coast Castle. The other will be captured in a raid on her village, imprisoned in the very same castle, and sold into slavery. ~ Indiebound

My book club chose this book for June and it was an excellent book to discuss but the book as a whole didn’t work for me. The story is told by different characters, each chapter a story in and of itself. Some of these stories I was very into and others, not so much. The ones that really moved me were often too short and then in no time a new character was being introduced.

What the author did well was give the reader an accurate picture of what it was like for slaves during that time. The details of the horrific living conditions are very hard to read. Although I would have liked to focus on fewer characters, I do think the handling of the characters was does well given the large period of time covered in the novel (eight generations).

What thoroughly added to the discussion was the additional facts provided by our discussion host. Lots of information about the Gold Coast and an explanation of boundaries. If I had read this book on my own I don’t think I would have liked it very much but as a discussion book I think it worked very well.

Have you read it?

Source: Borrowed
Disclosure: This post contains Indiebound affiliate links.