Brown Girl Book Club's First Semester Book: Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

Photo from Instagram @jhsbrowngirlbookclub

Rating: 3.7/5

This semester, Brown Girl Book Club read and discussed Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi. Yaa Gyasi is a Ghanaian American writer who graduated from Stanford University. Homegoing was her first book, inspired by a trip to Ghana in 2009 and her second novel, Transcendent Kingdom, also features the Ghanaian experience. 

Homegoing tells the story of Effia and Esi, two half-sisters born in 18th-century Ghana. Effia is married off to a British enslaver, while Esi is sold into slavery and shipped to America. The novel follows their descendants over 300 years.

At its heart, Homegoing explores the theme of family. Throughout Gyasi’s writing, she continuously shows the passing down of familial traditions and generational trauma, the lingering effects of past actions. For example, Effia’s descendants experience struggles with identity, power, and more. Through the various viewpoints of the connected characters Gyasi weaves, the audience receives a full scope of how significant those kinship ties are both in the context of this book and our own reality. 

Homegoing is an inspiring narrative that dives deep into the history and legacy of slavery, showing the resilience and strength of the characters across generations. The interconnected stories of the two half-sisters and their descendants highlight the enduring impact of history on personal identity and family. 

Homegoing is historical fiction that covers a variety of topics and subjects, which allows for a wide range of potentially interested readers from subjects like historical fiction, post-colonialism, or the African diaspora. The structure of the novel, with alternating chapters spanning seven generations and multiple perspectives, is interesting and compelling. However, the fragmented format can also make it challenging to keep track of familial relations and some chapters may feel brief or incomplete, leaving the reader to piece together the larger story.

Join Brown Girl Book Club on Friday mornings in room 404. Find out more @jhsbrowngirlbookclub.