‘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.’History is alive in all of us, charting a timeline into the future with each breath we take and moving to the rhythm of our actions. Like a relay race, the past passes us the baton and we must make do with it while we can before passing it off to the next generation. We also pass along our stories to remind those of where we have been and hope they can serve as guidance ...

Why are five-star reviews so much harder to write than negative ones?! All I want to do is say “This book is perfect. Read it. Bye.”https://emmareadstoomuch.wordpress.co...Anything more than that is just extraneous.Okay, I do also want to say that this is such a beautiful and painful representation of how white America has stolen the stories of Black people. As the reader of this story is able to learn the story of these bloodlines over the course of 300 years, constructing a narrative from ance...

“We believe the one who has power. He is the one who gets to write the story. So when you study history, you must ask yourself, Whose story am I missing?"Yaa Gyasi’s Homegoing is an ambitious and powerful novel which follows the descendants of two half-sisters in Ghana, some of the descendants stay in Ghana and some are shipped to America as slaves. In one way, the chapters of this novel (which follow descendants of the two sisters and span roughly 250 years) read like short stories because they...

“…that in America the worst thing you could be was a black man.” This novel, that reads like a collection of short stories, has the unique set up of each chapter following a different character's perspective, a new generation that follows on from its descendants - from Ghana to Harlem - that are often referred back to. It's structured like a family tree, where we follow it's branches down the line to its origin. The roots; which were - and still are - constantly destroyed due to slavery, colo...

I have a new BookTube channel! Come find me at Hello, Bookworm📚🐛Click here to watch a video review of this book on my (old) channel, From Beginning to Bookend. Homegoing is a multi-generational saga that follows the descendants of two half sisters, Effia and Esi, across three centuries, beginning in eighteenth-century Ghana and arriving at the present day. Each chapter of Homegoing introduces a new character, which means readers are subjected to endless amounts of backstory - seamlessly integr...

Right now it feels as if it's torn my heart and soul apart reading this deeply emotional book. It's been such a traumatic journey, and in addition to being profoundly moved by it all, I also feel both anger and shame at man's inhumanity to man.Homegoing tells the story of stepsisters, Effia and Esi, and it charts their lives and subsequent generations of their families from the 18th century onwards, but most importantly it's about the slave trade in all it's grim and sordid detail. These sisters...

“What I know now, my son: Evil begets evil. It grows. It transmutes, so that sometimes you cannot see that the evil in the world began as the evil in your own home.” 4 1/2 stars. Homegoing is an incredible and horrific look at history, colonialism and slavery in Ghana and America, across 250 years. How the author managed to create such rich characters, cover so much history, and tell such a complex, but compelling story in only 300 pages, I do not know.I recently said in my review of East of ...

I give 5 shining stars to Yaa Gyasi's Homegoing, the best debut novel I have read this year. In this semi autobiographical tale, Gyasi follows the family histories of two half sisters, Effia the beauty and Esi to reveal how their families end up. Each chapter is a vignette focusing on a family member in subsequent generations, alternating between Effia and Esi's families until we reach present day. Here are their until now largely untold stories. Effia the beauty had been raised by her step moth...

Homegoing is a very confident debut novel. Exceptionally engaging and the strongest case for reparations and black rage I've read in a long time. Seriously, white men are the devil. The most interesting part of this novel, the structure, also becomes the most frustrating part of the novel. The story starts with two sisters who are never allowed to know each other, and what becomes of the generations they beget, starting in 18th century Ghana. The novel beautifully explores the slave trade and im...

looking for great books to read during black history month...and the other eleven months? i'm going to float some of my favorites throughout the month, and i hope they will find new readerscongratulations! semifinalist in goodreads' best historical fiction category 2016!"We believe the one who has the power. He is the one who gets to write the story. So, when you study history, you must always ask yourself, whose story am I missing? Whose voice was suppressed so that this voice could come forth?...