Transcendent kingdom - Yaa Gyasi

LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2021

**From the bestselling author of Homegoing**

'A BOOK OF BLAZING BRILLIANCE' Washington Post
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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.

Transcendent Kingdom is a searing story story of love, loss and redemption, and the myriad ways we try to rebuild our lives from the rubble of our collective pasts.
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'A piercing story of faith, science and the opioid crisis...Transcendent Kingdom really sings. There's bravery as well as beauty here' Observer

'Absolutely transcendent. A gorgeously woven narrative . . . not a word or idea out of place. THE RANGE. I am quite angry this is so good' Roxane Gay

'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

Yaa Gyasi was born in Mampong, Ghana and raised in Huntsville, Alabama. Her first novel, Homegoing, was a Sunday Times bestseller, won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Best First Novel and was shortlisted for the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize for Debut Fiction. In 2017 Yaa Gyasi was selected as one of Granta's Best of Young American Novelists and in 2019 the BBC selected her debut as one of the 100 Novels that Shaped Our World.
Her second book Transcendent Kingdom is a New York Times bestseller.

A piercing story of faith, science and the opioid crisis . . . Transcendent Kingdom really sings. There's bravery as well as beauty here
Observer

Transcendent Kingdom is a novel for all times

Absolutely transcendent. A gorgeously woven narrative..not a word or idea out of place. I am quite angry this is so good
Roxane Gay

Her equally outstanding second novel, Transcendent Kingdom, smaller in scale, is another graceful exploration of trauma reverberating through a family...introspective and intimate
Sunday Telegraph

This novel is an unflinching account of loss, but it is also a moving tribute to the ability of the human spirit to ensure such tragedies
The Times

Gyasi's novel is a thoughtful analysis of a pressing social problem
Mail on Sunday

Among other things [Transcendent Kingdom] is a sharp reckoning with the tensions between race, science and religion...its scope is pared back, its register intimate - not many writers can switch style like this
Sunday Times Culture

Transcendent Kingdom is a quietly magnificent novel - vivid, touching and beautifully written, and also unafraid to be, and to remain, really very sad.
i

[A] mightily enjoyable novel
Daily Mail

Perhaps neither science nor religion alone could capture transcendence, but Gyasi has proved, once again, that a novel can
Guardian

A book of blazing brilliance . . . A double helix of wisdom and rage twists through the quiet lines of this novel. Yaa Gyasi is one of the most enlightening novelists writing today
Washington Post

A compelling look at a woman's struggle to move on from the devastating effects of her family falling apart in front of her eyes
Stylist

The must-read book of the year so far
Elle

A powerful, wholly unsentimental novel about family love, loss, belonging and belief that is more focused but just as daring as its predecessor, and to my mind even more successful
Wall Street Journal

Gyasi's second novel, Transcendent Kingdom, is a very different book, and, I think, a better one - contemporary, personal, acutely focused on a single family, and intensely felt
New Yorker

Exquisitely written with a lightness of touch despite its difficult themes; this novel is a triumph
Red

Raw, powerful storytelling that tackles race, religion, addiction and grief in a thoughtful way
Good Housekeeping

With deft agility and undeniable artistry, Gyasi's latest is an eloquent examination of resilient survival
Booklist

The Ghanaian-American has become a firm literary favour...Transcendent Kingdom is sure to cement her spot further
Stylist

Meticulous, psychologically complex ... At once a vivid evocation of the immigrant experience and a sharp delineation of an individual's inner struggle, the novel brilliantly succeeds on both counts

Publishers Weekly, starred review

Transcendent Kingdom is quiet in the way a wise soul will sit in the corner, clear their throat and when they speak, everyone listens...Transcendent Kingdom is a book always asking this question: how did we get here?
Bad Form Review

The range Gyasi displays in just two books is staggering
USA Today

Remarkable, a devastating account of America . . . explores horror without ever losing sight of humanity or hope
Sunday Times on 'Homegoing'