A brilliant read that touches on the subjects addiction, family, loneliness & depression, whilst illustrating a young, intelligent woman's quest to rekindle her religious upbringing with the scientific professional path she chose for herself. Gyasi explores how death & mental health issues leave their indelible mark on family relationships as well as one's understanding of their own identity in a piece of work that succeeds in being ambitious, well-researched, philosophical and lyrical at the same time.

Highly recommended - can't wait to play catch up with the rest of the world and read 'Homegoing' asap.

Yaa Gyasi’s debut novel was the ambitious, powerful if somewhat flawed historical epic “Homecoming” which told, in two diverging and the intersecting multi-generational tales, the missing parts of history in Ghana and America.

This her follow-up is in my view an even better book – and made I think even more impressive by the divergence in style and themes explored of its predecessor. For at heart this is an examination of religious and scientific belief – their clashes and similarities – and about how either holds up refracted through a lens of loss, addiction and underlying racism.

There are some strong overlaps between this book and the Booker-shortlisted “Real Life” – although in this novel the scientific research (here into mice rather than nematodes) is central to the book and non-autobiographical in nature (actually deriving from research done by the author’s friend – see link below) rather than serving as a simply a autobiographical vehicle for an exploration of other themes. I have to say also that I think this is a far more mature and coherent novel than the debut “Real Life”.

The author herself was was born in Ghana and raised in Alabama.

Over time the backstory of our first party narrator Gifty emerges.

She was born in the US some time after her driven and very religious Ghanian mother wins the Green Card lottery and moves to Alabama, with her at the time only child – Nana – to stay with a cousin doing a PhD there, before settling and later joined, rather reluctantly, by her older and rather easygoing husband – known as Chin Chin Man. The family struggle in America – Gifty’s mother works as a home help for the elderly (starting with a bigoted older white man), Chin Chin Man gets a job as a janitor but is weighted down by the overt racism he experiences – but Gifty’s mother joins an Assembly of God church where she gains a community (although move covert racial prejudice is never far from the surface no matter how much she chooses to ignore it).

Gifty too develops a childlike faith – which she expresses via a coded diary written to God – extracts of which litter the book – and the same impulses that drive her to faith drive her to an early interest in science

Back then, I approached my piety the same way I approached my studies: fastidiously. I spent the summer after my eighth birthday reading my Bible cover to cover, a feat that even my mother admitted she had never done. I wanted, above all else, to be good. And I wanted the path to that goodness to be clear. I suspect that this is why I excelled at math and science, where the rules are laid out step by step, where if you did something exactly the way it was supposed to be done, the result would be exactly as it was expected to be.

Nana as a young child is a successful soccer player – but quits after a racist incident – only for a growth spurt to help him discover basketball which does far more to cement both his and the family’s popularity and set out a potential future of College scholarships. But when he is injured on court, his family gradually realise that he has become addicted to OxyContin – an addiction which rapidly spins out of control and leads to his death from overdose. In turn this causes Gifty to question her hitherto unshakeable childlike faith, and her mother to sink into depression and Ambien dependency (with the 12 year old Gifty then sent to Ghana for a period while her mother just pulls herself together).

The book is set sixteen years later – Gifty is now a studying for a PhD in Neuroscience in California. Gifty’s PhD is on Neural circuits of reward-seeking behaviour – in simple terms she performs a relatively classical experiment on mice who after working out that a lever causes a reward of food, then find it starts giving them random shocks. Most mice eventually stop pressing the lever but a small cohort carry on pressing the lever no matter how frequent the shocks – effectively completely risk-averse reward seeking behaviour (something like addiction in humans). Her work is looking at whether.

optogenetics be used to identify the neural mechanisms involved in psychiatric illnesses where there are issues with reward seeking, like in depression, where there is too much restraint in seeking pleasure, or drug addiction, where there is not enough?

And of course function as a way for her to work through her confusion and shame about why she was unable to save her brother.

At the book’s start, her mother seems to have relapsed into depression and Anhedonia (an inability to drive pleasure) comes to stay with her and this causes Gifty to look back on her past and try to come to terms once more with everything that happened and to try to come to terms with it and this in turn leads her to reflect on her journey through religious faith and scientific belief – and to realise that they are simultaneously in conflict but also two sides of the same coin, and that ultimately neither has really give her the answers she seek but that between both of them and the fundamental importance of relationships there is an answer to be found.

This was a book where I found myself repeatedly highlighting passages.

I felt this was an excellent book and it also felt an intelligent and convincing one. The book is peppered with religious references and bible verse (ones Gifty learned as a child) and as a Christian I can say that they are all quoted in context and with understanding. And the scientific details, which at times get a little complex, are also never less than convincing and seem to fit my (more limited) understanding of the actual science involved (see paper below).

But if that and my review makes this book feel like some form of heavy philosophical tome – it is much more than that. Because at the heart there is a tale of: fraternal heartbreak; of a mother-daughter relationship which never really functions both as a mother-child and then a daughter-elderly dependent; of insidious racism never really seen as such until much later and absorbed more as unworthiness or shame; and even a very tentative attempt at romance which does provide some form of ultimate redemption.

This is a book which poses lots of questions, and while not giving any easy answers (because ultimately the questions are unanswerable), gives plenty for the reader to reflect on.

I thought it was outstanding.

This book has all the hype and deservedly so. I much preferred this to homegoing. I was transported into a completely different life and family and it was captivating.

A sensitive, beautiful and touching approach to addiction and it’s devastating and profound effect on family. I thought that this subject matter might have hit me harder emotionally, however it didn’t make me cry for example.

I’m glad I chose to read this book and I would read more of this authors work in the future

This was a stunning novel. An exploration, and meditation on mental health, religion and science. The relationships between the mother and daughter, and brother and sister, were powerful and poignant.
Although heartbreaking, there is so much beauty within the novel and it is beautifully written.
It was definitely my favourite book of 2020.

Finished this one yesterday and I loved it. Yaa Gyasi has a beautiful way with words. It is such a heartbreaking story, but also fascinating, as Gifty explores that ongoing question of God vs Science and whether the two can co-exist. I loved the descriptions of her work in the lab and just the way her mind worked.
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There were a couple of scenes that made me have to stop and close the book for a minute because the racism and/or grief were just too much, and although difficult, I love when a book challenges me and this occurs.
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Two from two for Gyasi from me - I’m a firm fan and will read anything she ever brings out. Thank you to @netgalley and @penguinrandomhouse for approving the ebook for me - I also ended up grabbing it from the library.

A powerful and exquisitely written character driven novel that touches on the fundamental philosophical questions of life and family by Yaa Gyasi. It focuses on the trauma and devastation wreaked on a Ghanaian family living in Alabama. The flawed Gifty is a Stanford PhD neuroscience researcher looking for answers to human suffering in science, looking to reconcile it with the childhood religious faith and beliefs that she grew up with in a narrative that goes back and forth in time. She is weighed by the heavy burden grief, the loss of her beloved brother, Nana, a talented athlete whose life was derailed after an injury that culminated in a heroin overdose. Her father went back to Ghana and never returned, leaving Gifty with only her depressed and suicidal mother. This is an outstanding, thoughtful, and hopeful read that details the struggles of the immigrant experience, such as the racism and poverty, family, loss, and grief that is heartbreaking. Many thanks to Penguin UK for an ARC.

Transcendent Kingdom is a novel about a woman tracing her own history and reckoning with the realities of America and being from an immigrant family. Gifty was born in Alabama, after her parents came over from Ghana with her young brother, and grew up with the struggles that torn her family apart until it ended up just her and her mother. Now doing a PhD at Stanford trying to understand the addiction that killed her brother, her mother comes to stay with her, and she starts to look back at her life and that of her family, seeing the trauma that led them there.

This novel combines a deep look at issues affecting modern America, particularly the opioid crisis and mental health, with an interesting exploration of religion, spirituality, and science, as Gifty's religious upbringing and scientific academic career come together. The impact of personal emotions and even trauma on scientific research really stands out, as she tries to explain her connection to the mice she's experimenting on in attempts to understand addiction and work out if anything could've been done to help her brother.

The narrative is told a lot through flashbacks, with the present day leading back into Gifty's memories to flesh out what happens to her and her family, and though some people might find this slows down the present story, it works well to get across how reticent Gifty is to share her past with people. This structure also makes some things, particularly her brother's addiction, have a horrifying inevitability, as you know what is coming as soon as he gets injured playing basketball and is given painkillers.

Transcendent Kingdom feels more like a novel of reflection than one where the protagonist does a lot in the present day narrative, and through this it touches upon a lot of interesting and powerful topics that affect people in America and beyond. It was also refreshing to have a novel where the main character's scientific research was going well, and the focus was more on what led them to study that area and other things happening in their life. Sharp and engrossing, the book draws you into Gifty's life and asks a lot of questions about how complicated and entangled different aspects of life can be.

A very well-written and moving book. This focuses on a Ghanaian family now living in America. It deals with themes of mental health, addiction and faith / religion.

A powerful read and highly recommend this.

Thanks to NetGalley for my review copy.

I was really looking forward to this book and so opted to read it as soon as I was approved on netgalley. I wasn’t disappointed.
The book tells the story of Gifty...living in America with her Ghanaian mother and for part of childhood her Ghanaian father. The story is told by an adult Gifty ...she follows her childhood back to identify the root of her mother’s depression whilst also considering her own relationship with God.
It’s beautifully written. Gifty is a scientist and there are some bits which for me were too technical but it didn’t put me off. I would definitely recommend

Transcendent Kingdom is a thoughtful and thought-provoking read that covers many themes from immigrant life to drug abuse, pitting religion/faith against science along the way. Gifty is an interesting character and I was drawn into her world and her journey throughout the course of the story. This is very much a character piece, rather than a plot-driven tale, but as such it works well and it held my interest. I didn't always agree with Gifty, but it was fascinating to see how she came to make the choices she did. Gyasi's prose style lends itself well this type of introspective tale, and I would certainly be keen to read more from her in the future. I did struggle to relate to the religious aspects of the piece, not being that way inclined myself, and I did wonder if this book would resonate more with those who do have a faith of some kind. However, that didn't stop me enjoying the work and overall I would give it four stars.

(This review will go live on my blog on 22 February 2021, at which point I will also share on Goodreads and across social media.)

Like many readers, I loved Gyasi's debut Homegoing and was excited to learn she had a new book coming out. I will start by saying that Transcendent Kingdom is very different to its predecessor; where Homegoing was cinematic in scope spanning centuries and multiple generations, Transcendent Kingdom is intimate following a handful of characters over the course of a few years.
It reads like a memoir told from the point of view of Gifty, a young black woman who works in clinical research. The focus of her work is to understand reward-seeking behaviour in mice and how that may apply to humans. Her choice of study takes on greater significance when we learn that her brother, Nana, died after a drug overdose and her mother is experiencing debilitating depression after the death of her son.
I really empathised with Gifty as a main character. She has the best intentions and tries desperately to "fix" her family through her work all while bearing the knowledge that, even if her research succeeds in helping people to manage addiction, it will have come too late for her brother.
I appreciated how Gyasi chose to characterise Nana who was not stereotyped as a gang-banger but rather as a promising young athelete who became addicted to painkillers and couldn't let go of the grip that addiction held over him. Another topic I felt was well handled was the experience of economic migrants who leave their homes in search of a better life only to face new, but no less difficult, challenges.
A theme running throughout the book is that of reconciling science with religion. At one point in the novel, Gifty's classmates make fun of her when they discover she is a Christian. She responds by saying, "I think we are made out of stardust and God made the stars" which I thought beautifully conveyed how easily religion and science can coexist. Transcendent Kingdom is an understated triumph which explores fundamental issues of humanity with intelligence, sensitivity and grace.

It's not the deepest of books - our narrator, in her comfortable present, looks back on her uncomfortable childhood where her mom was depressed and her brother was a drug addict. But, rather than show any insight into these subjects, that's about all we get - very surface-level descriptions of serious things. And that's it - there's no real story, just a lot of repetition and slow, uninteresting writing. Disappointing after I've heard so much good stuff about this one.

Brilliant, beautiful and touching. A masterpiece by a great writer who digs deep into the soul. It is a great exploration of science and religion and the meaning of being a parent and child. As well as what addiction is and what it is to be different in a racist American south. So many levels.

4.5 stars, rounded up.

Yaa Gyasi's Homegoing was one of my favourite books of 2018 (which was when I read it although it had come out two years earlier). So, when I saw this on netgalley, I jumped at the chance of getting a free copy in exchange for an honest review. Indeed, Transcendent Kingdom does not disappoint. It is a beautifully written, heartfelt meditation on migration, addiction and broken familes.

The book tells the story of Gifty, a young Ghanaian girl born in the United States where her mother had migrated from Ghana after having been randomnly selected for permanent residency. The mother and Gifty's elder brother go first, and after some time Gifty's father follows them. Gifty, the narrator, tells the story of the difficulties and racism the family encounters in the US. They can't find work, or, when they do, they have to suffer racial slurs and in-your-face racism. Money is never enough and God is their only support in their new country. Until the father gives up trying to make a new life for himself in this country of dreams and returns to Ghana, where "neighbors will greet you instead of turning their heads away like they don't know you", "where you can eat food fresh from the ground. Corn, hard in its cob, not soft like the spirits of these people".

Yet, despite the difficulties, the mother perseveres. She's like a rock in a stormy sea buttressed by her faith in God and her Evangelical church, whose services she attends every Sunday, her only day off after working double shifts the rest of the week. Mother, Ma or the The Black Mamba, as young Gifty calls her in her diary, is not your average American mother. She's tough with her children, with no time for play and games. Yet, the relationship between this formidable mother and an equally formidable daughter, Gifty, who will go on to study neuroscience at Stanford, is the backbone of this book.

When Nana, Gifty's older brother, is injured at a basketball game, the doctor prescribes OxyContin. But Nana continues taking OxyContin long after the injured knee heals. Thus starts a nightmarish journey with Gifty and her mother trying to deal with Nana's addiction, looking for him when he doesn't show up at home, booking him in rehab clinics, tring to make sense of this disaster that has befallen them.

The narrative goes back and forth between past and present, seamlessly interweaving Gifty's memories of the traumatic events she experienced and her current state (PhD researcher at Stanford). How does an 11-year-old ever manage to deal with her borther's addiction and also care for a mother who has lost the will to live? How does the family deal with unbearable loss when there is no one around to ask for help and even the pastor of their church drags his feet? How to stake out one's identity when the congregants of their own church whisper to each other that "their kind" has a tendency to drug-taking, which is why there is so much crime? And more importantly, how does bereavement and grief affect the life and career choices of a young girl who shouldn't have had to deal with any of this?

I totally loved this book, the way it was told going back and forth, unfolding as we get to understand Gifty's choices (for example, her decision to specialise in neurosience and in particular study the connection between desire and restraint), feel her loss and anger, her grief and sadness. Above all, we get to see the impossibility of putting things right. No one and nothing can put things right for this mother who left everything behind for a better life and yet, in her new country, get sto lose the people she loves most. This is not a story of redemption. Nothing, literally nothing can make up for the things lost.

I don't think this place was everything my mother hoped for when she asked God where she should go to give her son the world. Though she didn't ford a river of hike across mountians, she did what so many pioneers before her had done, travelled recklessly, curiously, into the unknown in the hopes of finding something that little bit better. And like them she suffered and she persevered, perhaps in equal measure.

I have to say I found the ending deflating and disappointing. To me it felt as if Gyasi had to make the story complete, and thus she hastened to add a husband and the coming-true of a dream that doesn't fit (a big house, a swimming pool, a remarkable career in science). The formidable mother ends her days quietly, the daughter re-discovers her long-lost faith in God and prayer. I think this was a very powerful book that deserved a different ending, less rushed and more thoughful.

My thanks to netgalley and Alfred A. Knopf for the advance copy.

I adored Yaa Gyasi's Homegoing which was a family saga brilliantly told in 300 pages. In her latest, Transcendent Kingdom, we follow a young woman Gifty through grief, and despair, while tracing her roots from Ghana to Alabama. As a major theme, it also deals with the internal struggles a believer faces—between Christian faith and science.

-I enjoyed reading Gifty's scientific work and the struggles she faces between what she was brought up on and her present ideas of science. It was interesting to see her scientific work on a professional level and her personal life—affected by her mother's illness and brother's death as a result of addiction.
- Gifty's mother is also a complex character built with trauma and secrets. "When she spoke Fante on phpne with her friends, she became like a girl again, giggling amd gossipping. WHen she spoke Twi to me (Gifty) she was her mother-self, stern and scary, warm. In English she was meek. She stumbled and was embarassed, and so to hide it she demurred."
-I also liked the scientific bits and research woven into the novel. For example there is a mention of "a 2015 study by TM Luhrmann, R. Padmavati, H Tharoor and A Osei, that schizophrenics in India and Ghana hear voices that are kinder and more benevolent than the voices heard by schizophrenics in America"

However, I didn't love Transcendent Kingdom as much as Homegoing;
- there is a lot of backstory which sometimes feels overwhelming to the progression of the plot.
- this book might speak more to those who enjoy reading about impact of faith and Christianity in their life.
- Even in the backstory, there are occaional letters, like diary entries, that I thought distracts us from the main story.
- Overall the structure isn't tightly wound. Not that, it is a problem. I do enjoy novels with leniently bound structures. But mentioning it here for those who are looking for a repetition of Yaa Gyasi's first novel.

I was able to appreciate Gifty's complex character. But I also feel this might not be everybody's cup of tea.

In an eloquent and precise prose Yaa Gyasi interrogates a young woman’s relationship to her family, her faith, her past, and her self. Her brother’s addiction and her mother’s depression have irrevocably shaped Gifty, the protagonist and narrator of Transcendent Kingdom, who is now a sixth-year PhD candidate in neuroscience at Stanford. Her quiet and controlled existence is disrupted by the arrival of her mother, who has once again succumbed to a depressive state, barely responding to the world around her, let alone taking notice of her daughter. Gifty, who spends most of her time in her lab, where she’s researching the neural circuits of reward seeking behaviour (by experimenting on mice) finds herself looking back to her childhood, her college years and her first years at Stanford.
Throughout the course of the novel Gyasi weaves together Gifty’s past and present, delineating her self-divide and her fragile relationship to her mother.
Gifty’s recollection of her childhood is free of sentimentality, and she’s very much matter-of-fact when it comes to recounting her brother’s addiction to OxyContin, the racism she and her family are exposed to in America, the lack of support they receive (“They just watched us with some curiosity. We were three black people in distress. Nothing to see.”), especially from the members of their church.
We also learn of her parents’ immigration from Ghana to Alabama, her father’s disconnect from his new home, her mother’s desire to fit in and adapt, the rift caused by their opposing stances (wanting to return to Ghana/wanting to remain in America). After her father’s return to Ghana, Gifty’s mother spends most of her time working in order to keep the family afloat, so it is Nana who becomes the central figure in her life. In spite of their age gap and their sibling spats, the two are very close, and Gifty looks up to her brother. An injury occurred while playing basketball lands Nana in hospital where a doctor prescribes him OxyContin for the pain. In the following years Gifty witnesses her brother’s spiralling further into addiction, while her mother desperately tries to ‘save’ him.
While these experiences have affected Gifty’s relationship to her faith, and she’s somewhat embarrassed when reading her old diary entries, in which she pleads for divine intervention, as an adult Gifty finds herself craving that ardor.
In college she struggles between wanting to be alone and wanting to connect with others. Her background causes some of her science peers to make scoffing remarks or prejudiced presumptions, and the few people who try to get close to her are inevitably pushed away.

Throughout the course of the narrative Gyasi shows how time and again Gifty is made to feel as if she cannot possibly find comfort in both science and religion. Yet, for Gifty, the two are not in opposition: “[T]his tension, this idea that one must necessarily choose between science and religion, is false. I used to see the world through a God lens, and when that lens clouded, I turned to science. Both became, for me, valuable ways of seeing, but ultimately both have failed to fully satisfy in their aim: to make clear, to make meaning.”
Given that her childhood was disrupted by her father’s departure, her brother’s addiction, and her mother’s depression, isn’t it natural for Gifty to wonder ‘why?’. Why did her brother become an addict? Why is her mother depressed? Her search for answers, for a reason, for the ability to discern cause and effect, fuels her studies and in many ways her faith. Once she finds herself once again with her mother however her resolve not to talk or reveal her past is tested.
This novel tells an emotionally devastating tale about love, forgiveness, guilt, pain, and identity. Reading this novel made my heart ache. Addiction and depression have left their mark on my family, and Gifty’s experiences hit too close to home. And yet, however upsetting it was to read about the insidiousness of addiction and depression, Gyasi incisive observations and wisdoms assuage my uneasiness.
Gyasi exerts perfect control of her prose as she navigates Gifty’s childhood and adulthood. Her restrained style perfectly reflects Gifty’s self-restraint. She offers piercing meditations on family, philosophy, science, and faith, and Gifty’s quiet meditations on these subjects are articulated in a meticulous yet striking way.
I’m not sure what else I can add other than I was (am) in awe of this book. It made me feel seen and understood.