Homegoing
by Yaa Gyasi
African American Historical FictionLGBTQ historical fictionsagaliterary fictionhistorical fiction
4.1
Open LibraryFirst lines
The night Effia Otcher was born into the musky heat of Fanteland, a fire raged through the woods just outside her father’s compound.
About this book
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.
Themes & subjects
African American Historical FictionLGBTQ historical fictionsagaliterary fictionhistorical fictionwomen
Characters & people
Setting
FantelandGhanaAmericaGold CoastCape Coast CastleBaltimorePratt CityBirmingham ALAlabamaHarlemNew York City18th century19th Century20th Century
About the author
Yaa Gyasi
1989
Yaa Gyasi was born in Ghana and raised in Huntsville, Alabama. She holds a BA in English from Stanford University and an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, where she held a Dean’s Graduate Research Fellowship. She lives in New York City. Photo: © Michael Lionstar source: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/authors/2117741/yaa-gyasi
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