Homegoing
HomegoingYaa Gyasi
Want to read
 Buy on Amazon

Homegoing (2016)

Yaa Gyasi

Others: Overwhelmingly positive

Homegoing is the debut historical fiction novel by Ghanaian-American author Yaa Gyasi, published in 2016. Each chapter in the novel follows a different descendant of an Asante woman named Maame, starting with her two daughters, who are half-sisters, separated by circumstance: Effia marries James Collins, the British governor in charge of Cape Coast Castle, while her half-sister Esi is held captive in the dungeons below. Subsequent chapters follow their children and following generations. The novel was selected in 2016 for the National Book Foundation's "5 under 35" award, the National Book Critics Circle's John Leonard Award for best first book, and was longlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize in 2017. It received the Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award for 2017, an American Book Award, and the Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Literature.

ISBN:
9781101971062
Length:
320 pages

Genres: historical fiction, literary fiction

Lists: …

Similar books

1 of 6
  • Open book

    Half of a Yellow Sun

    Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

    2006 · 448 pages · 2 reviews

    Others: Overwhelmingly positive

    Half of a Yellow Sun is a novel by Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Published in 2006 by Fourth Estate, the novel tells the story of the Biafran War through the perspective of the characters Olanna, Ugwu, and Richard.

    Why?

    What made the match, strongest first

    Also historical fiction and literary fiction
    54%
    On 5+ of the same lists
    32%
    2 creators loved both
    14%
    Personalize your recommendations
  • Open book

    Americanah

    Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

    1969 · 496 pages · 4 reviews

    Others: Overwhelmingly positive

    Americanah is a 2013 novel by the Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, for which Adichie won the 2013 U.S. National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction. Americanah tells the story of a young Nigerian woman, Ifemelu, who immigrates to the United States to attend university. The novel traces Ifemelu's life in both countries, threaded by her love story with high school classmate Obinze.

    Why?

    What made the match, strongest first

    Also historical fiction and literary fiction
    46%
    On 5+ of the same lists
    35%
    2 creators loved both
    19%
    Personalize your recommendations
  • Open book

    The Kite Runner

    Khaled Hosseini

    2003 · 361 pages · 3 reviews

    Others: Mostly positive

    The unforgettable, heartbreaking story of the unlikely friendship between a wealthy boy and the son of his father’s servant, The Kite Runner is a beautifully crafted novel set in a country that is in the process of being destroyed. It is about the power of reading, the price of betrayal, and the possibility of redemption; and an exploration of the power of fathers over sons—their love, their sacrifices, their lies. A sweeping story of family, love, and friendship told against the devastating backdrop of the history of Afghanistan over the last thirty years, The Kite Runner is an unusual and powerful novel that has become a beloved, one-of-a-kind classic.

    Why?

    What made the match, strongest first

    Also historical fiction and literary fiction
    61%
    On 5+ of the same lists
    27%
    Jack Edwards loved both
    12%
    Personalize your recommendations
  • Open book

    Lincoln in the Bardo

    George Saunders

    2017 · 343 pages · 4 reviews

    Others: Overwhelmingly positive

    February 1862. The Civil War is less than one year old. The fighting has begun in earnest, and the nation has begun to realize it is in for a long, bloody struggle. Meanwhile, President Lincoln's beloved eleven-year-old son, Willie, lies upstairs in the White House, gravely ill. In a matter of days, despite predictions of a recovery, Willie dies and is laid to rest in a Georgetown cemetery. "My poor boy, he was too good for this earth," the president says at the time. "God has called him home." Newspapers report that a grief-stricken Lincoln returns, alone, to the crypt several times to hold his boy's body. From that seed of historical truth, George Saunders spins a story of familial love and loss that breaks free of its historical framework into a supernatural realm both hilarious and terrifying. Willie Lincoln finds himself in a strange purgatory where ghosts mingle, gripe, commiserate, quarrel, and enact bizarre acts of penance. Within this transitional state -- called, in the Tibetan tradition, the bardo -- a monumental struggle erupts over young Willie's soul.

    Why?

    What made the match, strongest first

    Also historical fiction and literary fiction
    62%
    On 5+ of the same lists
    21%
    2 creators loved both
    17%
    Personalize your recommendations
  • Open book

    Daisy Jones & The Six

    Taylor Jenkins Reid

    2019 · 384 pages · 41 reviews

    Others: Mostly positive

    A gripping novel about the whirlwind rise of an iconic 1970s rock group and their beautiful lead singer, revealing the mystery behind their infamous break up. Everyone knows Daisy Jones & The Six, but nobody knows the real reason why they split at the absolute height of their popularity…until now. Daisy is a girl coming of age in L.A. in the late sixties, sneaking into clubs on the Sunset Strip, sleeping with rock stars, and dreaming of singing at the Whisky a Go-Go. The sex and drugs are thrilling, but it’s the rock and roll she loves most. By the time she’s twenty, her voice is getting noticed, and she has the kind of heedless beauty that makes people do crazy things. Another band getting noticed is The Six, led by the brooding Billy Dunne. On the eve of their first tour, his girlfriend Camila finds out she’s pregnant, and with the pressure of impending fatherhood and fame, Billy goes a little wild on the road. Daisy and Billy cross paths when a producer realizes the key to supercharged success is to put the two together. What happens next will become the stuff of legend.

    Why?

    What made the match, strongest first

    Also historical fiction and literary fiction
    61%
    On 5+ of the same lists
    21%
    2 creators loved both
    18%
    Personalize your recommendations
  • Open book

    My Brilliant Friend

    Elena Ferrante

    2011 · 336 pages · 6 reviews

    Others: Mostly positive

    Care lettrici, cari lettori, provate a leggere questo libro e vorrete che non finisca mai. Elena Ferrante, con il suo nuovo romanzo, torna a sorprenderci, a spiazzarci, regalandoci una narrazione-fiume cui ci si affida come quando si fa un viaggio con un tale piacevole agio, con un tale intenso coinvolgimento, che la meta più è lontana e meglio è. L’autrice abbandona la piccola, densa storia privata e si dedica a un vasto progetto di scrittura che racconta un’amicizia femminile, quella tra Lila Cerullo ed Elena Greco, dall’infanzia a Napoli negli anni Cinquanta del secolo scorso fino a oggi. L’amica geniale comincia seguendo le due protagoniste bambine, e poi adolescenti, tra le quinte di un rione miserabile della periferia napoletana, tra una folla di personaggi minori accompagnati lungo il loro percorso con attenta assiduità. L’autrice scava intanto nella natura complessa dell’amicizia tra due bambine, tra due ragazzine, tra due donne, seguendo passo passo la loro crescita individuale, il modo di influenzarsi reciprocamente, i buoni e i cattivi sentimenti che nutrono nei decenni un rapporto vero, robusto. Narra poi gli effetti dei cambiamenti che investono il rione, Napoli, l’Italia, in più di un cinquantennio, trasformando le amiche e il loro legame. E tutto ciò precipita nella pagina con l’andamento delle grandi narrazioni popolari, dense e insieme veloci, profonde e lievi, rovesciando di continuo situazioni, svelando fondi segreti dei personaggi, sommando evento a evento senza tregua, ma con la profondità e la potenza di voce a cui l’autrice ci ha abituati... Non vogliamo dirvi altro per non guastare il piacere della lettura. Dicevamo che L’amica geniale appartiene a quel genere di libro che si vorrebbe non finisse mai. E infatti non finisce. O, per dire meglio, porta compiutamente a termine in questo primo romanzo la narrazione dell’infanzia e dell’adolescenza di Lila e di Elena, ma ci lascia sulla soglia di nuovi grandi mutamenti che stanno per sconvolgere le loro vite e il loro intensissimo rapporto. La storia si dipana nei volumi successivi, per raccontarci la giovinezza, la maturità, la vecchiaia incipiente delle due amiche. Godiamoci dunque anche questo altro tratto, che è costitutivo del vero lettore: il piacere assaporato e poi dilazionato, l’attesa del seguito, la speranza, tra le tante amarezze di oggi, di un po’ di dolce nel prossimo futuro. Buona lettura, Gli editori

    Why?

    What made the match, strongest first

    Also historical fiction and literary fiction
    62%
    On 5+ of the same lists
    21%
    TheBookchemist loved both
    17%
    Personalize your recommendations

Reviews10

Books and Things
Loved it

I think homegoing is so incredible I know it's one of those books that like a lot of people spoke about and it had a lot of hype when it came out a few years ago but I genuinely think all the hype is deserved

Review 1 of 2