Yaa Gyasi "Transcendent Kingdom"
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
Paperback, 288 pages