Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.

I'm really glad to see this book's made the Women's Prize longlist as it's an insightful look at race, mental health and the relationship between science and religion. Gyasi's prose is lyrical and immediate, and it's so easy to identify with Gifty's story and her mother's struggles to try and give her children the best life possible. The discussion of science and religion was so interesting and hammers home that there's no need to have one without the other - it's a pointless dichotomy. Nana's story and Gifty's subsequent research in the hopes of providing a cure was both sad and uplifting. A great book.

This was a fascinating novel, narrated by a neuroscientist who is researching addiction, while dealing with her depressed mother. We learn about her childhood, and the difficulties faced by her Ghanaian family as they settle in America, particularly as her older star athlete brother becomes addicted to opoids. This was a great story with a really unusual perspective and protagonist. The sciencey sections were interesting and accessible, and shed light on her family's and her own actions.

Gifty's brother, Nana was the beloved son of his mother, popular, and a gifted sportsman. The impact of his death on Gifty and her mother forms the nucleus of a story which explores addiction, mental health, and the tension between scientific research and religious belief.

If that sounds a heavy mix, it doesn't feel like it, as Transcendant Kingdom is completely absorbing. The relationships of the main characters ring so true: they are sometimes awkward, and not always likeable, but you can't help but sympathise with them. The peripheral characters add a touch of lightness, and I especially liked Han, with his embarassed ears, and Katherine, who sticks with Gifty.

It was a real pleasure to read a book with a successful woman scientist as the main character, and I enjoyed learning about her research into neuroscience almost as much as I enjoyed her life story. Beautifully written, thought-provoking and deeply moving, this is a refreshingly different read.

This is the story of Gifty who now works as a PHD candidate doing research on mice regarding addiction and drug dependence.

The story goes back and forth how she grew up with her mom, her brother and her almost absent dad. The story is centred on depression, racism and discrimination, poverty, a dysfunctional family, drug addiction, death, grief and religion.

This story is heartbreaking. But I feel like the main character is developed in such a way as if to tell whatever hardships come, you have to face them head-on. I love her character. She isn't perfect; she isn't your outspoken female character but what she's is what she is - single handedly took care of her career and her difficult mother till the end.

It tries to tell that as long as you succeed, everybody's your well-wisher. But the moment you lose, everyone just stops caring even if you drop dead. Yes, that's the case here.

The important lesson I learnt from this is that even if you have a toxic family, there's nothing else that's more important than your family. Even if you want to escape and run away, the best is to do something for yourself alongside supporting your family when they need you.

Trigger warnings for drug misuse, addiction, suicidal tendency and self-harm, domestic violence

The writing is beautiful. However, I feel the book could have ended better.

Transcendent Kingdom is written in the first person, and narrated by the main character, Gifty. In interviews, Yaa Gyasi has said that this is the first time that she has sustained this type of voice and if this is the case, please do it again! I believed in the character so completely that I had to check that the novel wasn’t semi-autobiographical (it isn’t).

Gifty has all the complexity of a real person. She expresses her anxieties and thought processes in such a convincing way that you feel as if you’re both inside her mind, and witnessing her behaviour from an external perspective. Yaa Gyasi makes it seem effortless, but it takes a lot of skill to create this type of intimacy between reader and character.

There’s a tug-of-war between desire and repression, religion and science at the heart of Transcendent Kingdom, which fuels much of the tension within the novel. At one extreme, we see the tragic outcome of Gifty’s brother, Nana’s addiction to opiates and at the opposite end of the spectrum, Gifty and her mother exert huge restraint, suppressing their true emotions and pay the price with their mental health. Gifty’s experiments on mice in the lab reflect her struggle to understand both states and find balance.

To further complicate the psychological aspects, Gifty also assesses her faith throughout the book and attempts to decipher its place in her life. I’m not a religious person but I found that the spiritual dimension added extra depth to the novel. It connects Gifty’s story with her mother’s journey too – the church providing a sometimes hostile, sometimes supportive second home in an inherited land.

Reading the blurb now, I’m struck by how tidy it makes Transcendent Kingdom seem in comparison to my own reading experience. The story moves slowly, winding around itself in an organic way, spreading into reflections that sometimes seem random, but contain an order. In this respect, I was reminded of Yaa Gyasi’s debut, Homegoing. which follows a more rigid pattern, yet has moments of chaos. I was happy to go with the flow though, simply because Yaa Gyasi’s words are so real, raw and readable.

The exception to this was the ending. I had to replay the last few pages a few times because I thought that the text had jumped on my Kindle. In comparison to the thoughful pace of the novel, the conclusion felt rushed, and without giving too much away, extremely convenient. I would be intrigued to know what went through the editor and author’s head when they signed this off, and if there is a particular rationale for this stylistic choice.

Nevertheless, this one peculiarity doesn’t and shouldn’t define Transcendent Kingdom because this novel doesn’t really rest on plot. It’s about human experience and the quest to reconcile the physical with the spiritual; to definite your whole self in a world that is constantly changing. A monumental task, but one which Yaa Gyasi as once again captured beautifully in this profound imagining.

Thanks to the publishers and NetGalley for the ARe-copy in exchange for this honest review.
I found this book quite hard to review as there were aspects I really loved and then just part of the reading experience was a little like eating your greens - you know it was nutritious but part of me just craved some sugary carbs!
The description of Gifty's brother's addiction and eventual overdose and death were incredibly moving and evoked emotions in me of empathy for the grief and overwhelming sadness of Gifty and her mother and anger at the injustice of Nana's death.
As with Homecoming, I found the Gyasi's prose beautiful in its clean, crisp, evocative simplicity and her characterisation is deep, authentic and insightful.
However, whilst I found the examination of faith Vs science and how they relate to the tragedies Gifty faces very pertinent and touched on some personal questions and experiences of my own, I just found it tough going at times. As a non-academic I just found the novel too heavily weighted by this ongoing exploration and think that more can be communicated and learned from the creative art of Gyasi's writing than the rather dry, overly dominating philosophical debate.
I recognise the search for answers that Gifty needed in her life and identify with that, but ultimately found it overly laboured and hard to follow at times.

Phenomenal! Yaa Gyasi writes beautiful character driven novels that deal with a number of themes throughout. As a reader, it’s a true delight to live in her world and experience every heartwarming and heartbreaking moment alongside her characters. All the stars for Transcendent Kingdom.

Gifty is a neuroscientist, born and raised in Alabama, but with parents who come from Ghana. She grows up Christian, loses her brother to addiction, and remains in Alabama with her mom, when their dad just leaves them to go back to Ghana. Her life is not a fairy tale. It's raw and real, and Gifty tells it like it is. No sugarcoating, no holding back.

Gifty was a character masterfully developed. She was so complex, relatable, ordinary yet so authentic.

The story introduces several themes, religion, depression, addiction, dealing with loss and grief, racism and sexuality. While this all may sound like too big of a bite in a 250-page book, it didn't feel like it. It felt like all of these issues have been deeply integrated into Gifty's character and personality, into the very core of her being. Everything introduced to us was something Gifty was dealing with or has experienced, and I think this is why the entire story flowed naturally.

For those who are worried that this is a novel that forcefully preaches about religion, and pushes it down your throat, don't worry, it's not like that. Gifty's life is what it is - her childhood and early years were dictated by Christianity in a way and made her who she is today. Although she is now a scientist, through her we see, that you cannot simply cut ties with everything in the past even if you don't want to. She herself says that religion doesn't mean you don't believe in science and vice versa. Once she lived her life by the Bible, and then she tried to find sense in science. But then she realises neither will give you complete and definite answers about life.

Obviously, she has very complex feelings about her own upbringing and her relationships with her mother, and we get such a detailed insight into what this might feel like.

I believe this would be a fantastic book for a book club, because there is so much to discuss and talk about. No caption or blog post will do it justice.

Gifty has always been second, her brother Nana was the beloved child of the parents, as a sports prodigy all eyes of their Alabama hometown have been on him until an injury and later a drug addiction took his life. Gifty’s mother has never recovered from the loss, her father had left the family even before to turn back to his home country Ghana. Even as an adult and highly successful scientist, Gifty longs for the mother’s recognition which she never gets. Also religion, with which she grew up does not really offer any condolence. How should she ever be able to love when she herself has never experienced being loved?

Yaa Gyasi‘s “Homegoing“ was already a novel I thoroughly enjoyed, “Transcendent Kingdom“, however, is much stronger in the way the protagonist is portrayed and in conveying this fragmented family‘s critical emotional state. The mother struggling to make a life in a foreign country and thus enduring open racism from the people she works for; Gifty being raised to be silent with a strange idea of how to be a good girl and to follow ideals marked by a religious understanding which limits her in every respect.

“Nana was the first miracle, the true miracle, and the glory of his birth cast a long shadow. I was born into the darkness that shadow left behind. I understood that, even as a child.”

Gifty loves her brother, admires him and even though, as a child, she cannot understand what happens to him after his injury, he is the one who drives her to work her way up in the scientific community, to go into one of the hardest disciplines in order to understand the human brain and to contribute to scientific finding and development.

“Like my mother, I had a locked box where I kept all my tears. My mother had only opened hers the day that Nana died and she had locked it again soon.”

Gifty’s mother suffers from depression which makes her unable to care or love her daughter. She does not see what the girl achieves, how hard she works and how much she suffers from the lack of emotional care. It is a pity to see how she neglects the girl who retreats into her own world and which makes her unable of bonding with others, no matter if on a friendships or a romantic basis.

A wonderfully written novel, highly emotional and going to the heart.

A stunning, refreshing novel. How can we come to terms with grief and deep, existential pain? Gifty’s mother is prone to depression and spends her days on Gifty’s couch. Her father has returned to Ghana, as he could not take the racism and humiliation of his life as a janitor and an immigrant, her brother has died of an overdose of opioid medication following an injury. Gifty soon becomes aware that she will have to prove herself in life and when we first meet her she has become a neuroscientist studying reward-seeking behaviour in mice.

Throughout the novel Gifty is searching for something that helps understand the causes of such pain, an attempt to heal, to repair the pain caused by her brother loss and help her mother, and she looks for answers in science and faith. These topics are treated with depth and cognizance, but also very well woven into the narration, as the novel feels modern, stimulating and not at all encumbered by the reflective component. Gifty is a wonderful, inquisitive vibrant, character, at times thorny, extremely interesting with her keen observations dry humour. Thoughtful treatment of systemic racism with a protagonist who eschews self-complacency. This is a fantastic, timely novel for uncertain times, a terrific take on the coming-of-age story.

I am grateful to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of this novel.

I finished this book, closed it, and felt … nothing. Apart from bemusement and a mild sense of irritation that it had ended so abruptly without any real sense of resolution.

It didn’t feel like it had been written by the same author as Homegoing. The prose wasn’t quite so sublime, the characters not quite so bold, so present. The story was less powerful, its essence prowling but harmless, like a tiger without teeth. It never fully pulled me in, only occasionally teasing, then skittering off and losing me again.

The protagonist is neuroscientist Gifty, whose profession of choice is a reaction to childhood events that made her lose her faith: Her father going back to Ghana and never returning to their home in Alabama. Her beloved older brother, Nana, dying from a drug overdose. Her mother succumbing to depressive illness.

Gifty has grown up channeling all her energies into looking for answers that she couldn’t find in her religion. What causes addiction? What are the physiological triggers for reward-seeking behavior? Can the brain be altered to control it? Could science have saved Nana where God couldn’t?

The principal themes are big and complex: faith and science (can the two be reconciled?), loss and grief, mental health. But the narrative also touches on migration, race, and even sexuality. It’s all too much to squeeze into 256 pages and still leave the reader with a sense of understanding, of fulfillment.

I liked the character of Gifty. I understood her sense of loss — of her faith as well as of her father and brother. I understood the difficult relationship she had with her mother. I understood her demons. I wanted to know Gifty better. But the long-winded scientific citations and biblical references hindered this knowing, serving only to distract and frustrate.

I was left with the feeling that this was a book the author had written for herself to satisfy some inner need. I know with certainty that it wasn’t written for me.

My thanks to Penguin Books via NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this title.

I really enjoyed this book by Yaa Gyasi. I haven't read her first book but I think I will now. Lovely prose with a beautifully woven tale of a unique family. Gifty was a damaged, yet endearing, character. I felt empathy for her and the struggles of her past, as well as the scars she still carries from that time.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book.

Thanks to NetGalley and The Publisher for this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

It's confirmed, Yaa Gyasi isn't a one hit wonder! After this and Homegoing, I will continue to read whatever she puts out.

There was too much I could relate to in this book, making it a hard but wonderful read. It's difficult to put in words how I feel about this book. This is one of those books that reminds me why I believe books are so vitally important. Books give others insight in to the lives of others. Books give voices to the voiceless. Books let you know that you are not alone. This book covers a lot of deep themes, dysfunctional familial relationships. the struggles of being an immigrant in a Western society, addiction, grieving, mental health, the academic work/life balance, losing one's religion, keeping secrets and more. Fantastically researched and delicately but realistically portrayed. This book is a must read.

Transcendent Kingdom is almost the opposite of Homegoing. Where Homegoing covers a huge time period and cast, Transcendent Kingdom is a slow and introspective book which focuses on one woman and her family. It explores Gifty's complex grief over her brother, and how it affects her relationship with her mother and drives her to pursue her passion in science. But we get a deep insight into so many other tensions in the book, such as science and religion, mental illness, and immigration. The writing style is beautiful as ever, and although I don't understand science at all, it was explained in a way that was easy to grasp. Clearly, Yaa Gyasi has a lot of range!

Transcendent Kingdom is a powerful and thought-provoking story which examines many difficult topics, including religion, race, drug addition, grief and depression. It is poignant and deeply moving. The author’s writing is beautiful and she certainly knows how to write a intensely moving story. Preferring more uplifting stories this was somewhat out of my comfort zone, but I was taken completely by surprise and ended up completely absorbed in the story of Gifty’s life. The book is all about the characters, how they feel and their life. It is well researched by the author and captivating and interesting, I learnt so much reading this book.

Gifty is a young woman, who grew up in America after immigrating with her family from Ghana as a child. Now a successful neuroscientist she studies reward-seeking behaviour in mice in connection with depression and addiction. Her work is catalysed by her deep-rooted emotions following her brother’s death from a drug overdose and her mother’s constant fight with depression. Although humanely described I have to say the experiments on the mice were not my favourite part of the book.

Reflecting upon Gifty’s life the storyline jumps around from past to present, but remains easy to follow. I enjoyed reading Gifty’s little journal snippets from the journal she kept as a child and her thought processes contained within.

Although this is not a genre I read very often, I really enjoyed this reading experience and I will be mulling over and thinking about this book for months to come. I have heard so much about Yaa Gyasi’s previous book, Homegoing, that I will definitely be reaching for it at some point. I recommend Transcendent Kingdom if you enjoy Women’s Fiction and intense and deeply moving stories.

Thank you to the publisher, via Netgalley, for my advanced copy of this book.

This book is incredible! It makes you think, it makes you cry and it makes you question yourself, your beliefs and what you stand for.

It is the story of Gifty, a talented neuroscience student studying behavioral physiology and it's links to addiction and mental health. This is a topic close to home for Gifty, as she has experienced both her Mum and brother struggling. Gifty is not without her own struggles, she reacts to her family experiences by immersing herself into her research, all the while tackling he own dilemmas with finding the balance between religion and science. It is truly thought provoking.

Although the start was slow and quite difficult to get into, when the book grabbed me, it really took a hold. I appreciated the introspective nature of the story, the examining of the self. It touched on some sensitive subjects, immigration, depression, drug addiction and loss all in a manner that showed the beauty of humanity.

This is a book that stayed with me long after I read it. I definitely want to reread it again someday, perhaps with the audiobook, I can only imagine how lovely it would be to hear it through Gifty's voice.

Thank you Penguin General UK - Fig Tree, Hamish Hamilton, Viking, Penguin Life, Penguin Business and NetGalley for providing me with a copy to review.


4.5 Stars

I enjoyed so much reading Transcendent Kingdom! The story captivated me immediately with the perspectives of Gifty – the child and Gifty – the woman, the narrative structure that goes back and forth from the present to the past, the references to real scientific papers on neuroscience.

It is a touching story that covers difficult topics such as addiction, mental health, and immigration. The story of Gifty and her family is heartbreaking, and illustrates not only the hardships of Black immigrants in the USA, but also how mental health issues take a toll on the whole family.

Gifty is a scientist, but also a person who grew “in the church” during childhood. She is constantly torn between rational arguments and the religious beliefs deeply rooted in her soul. Also, Gifty’s internal turmoil is fueled by the struggles to accept the past of her family, a past that brings her shame, despite the fact that she did not do anything wrong.

Reading Transcendent Kingdom was such a rich and moving experience. Yaa Gyasi brought together two opposing topics, science and faith, and interwove them in a beautifully written novel. Definitely one of those books that I’ll recommend to all my friends!

Unfortunately this was a DNF for me (at 40%). I loved Homegoing and gave it 5 stars. This was nothing like it. I’m sure many others will love it. I enjoyed the science side of things but wasn’t into the religion at all. Really disappointing as I thought this would be another 5 star read for me.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for the eARC.

Transcendent Kingdom is a beautiful book examining the relationship that the protagonist GIfty has with God and religion through the passage of her life. Certain key moments drive the narrative with the death of her brother Nana and the resulting mental collapse of her mother sinking into depression. Gyasi examines the place of duty, conditioning and need as God and science are entwined in Gifty’s sense of self. As with her previous book Homegoing, Gyasi explores the immigrant experience and the disconnect between Africa and contemporary America, the choices that are made and past that is carried. Exquisitely written and delicately handled, Transcendent Kingdom is a joy and deserves to be widely read..

I thoroughly enjoyed this moving and beautifully written story about the Ghanaian-American neuroscientist, Gifty and her family. There are interesting explorations of the tensions between belief in God and belief in science as well as emotional discussions around family, racism, depression and addiction.

Although the topics are big, the book did not feel weighed down with serious talking points, but moved through the story lightly and with humour. Like the author's previous book, Homegoing, the subjects are dealt with through personal experiences - "show, not tell".

A recommended read!

Thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for providing a review copy in exchange for honest feedback.