![]() ![]() Language, Gyasi says, was literally taken away from her West African ancestors during the slave trade. The 26-year-old, a graduate of Stanford University and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, speaks plainly of a phenomenon that is specific to all artists, but which has distinctly complex implications for black women authors-that call to speak for those ancestors who could not speak for themselves. It’s a quality they share with their creator, Gyasi. ![]() And while each descendant experiences life (and blackness and love and family) in distinct ways, these characters have at least one thing in common: the inability to ignore a certain call they hear, sometimes in their minds, sometimes in their very bones, from those who came before them. The book, an overwhelming page-turner-as addictive as a binge-worthy TV show-follows their two bloodlines all the way to the present day. ![]() Effia is from Fanteland and marries a British slave dealer, while Esi, a member of the Asante nation, is sold into slavery. In Yaa Gyasi’s debut novel Homegoing, every character granted his or her own chapter is a descendent of two 18th-century, Ghanaian half-sisters. ![]()
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