Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

I picked up Homegoing sometime last year as part of my book club reading and finished it in one or two sittings & I remember feeling a whirlwind of emotions at the time, some parts were tough to read but even still, I couldn’t stop turning the pages!

Reading Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi was an experience I’ll never forget. This book didn’t just move me, it shook me. I found myself crying more than once, overwhelmed by the sheer weight of what our ancestors endured. It’s raw, it’s emotional, and it’s one of the most powerful stories I’ve ever read. It isn’t your conventional novel. It’s a compilation of related stories which collectively examines slavery and it’s consequences on the generations to come – eight in this instance.

The novel begins in 18th-century Ghana, with two half-sisters, Effia and Esi. Born into separate villages and completely unaware of each other’s existence, their lives take drastically different paths. Effia is married off to a British coloniser and lives in relative comfort, while Esi is captured, imprisoned in the dungeons of Cape Coast Castle, and sold into slavery in America.

From there, Homegoing traces the bloodlines of these two women across seven generations. Effia’s descendants remain in Ghana, navigating colonisation and civil unrest, while Esi’s lineage unfolds in America, shaped by slavery, the Great Migration, and mass incarceration. Each chapter introduces a new descendant, and somehow, Gyasi makes every single one of their stories unforgettable. It feels like you’re reading a tapestry of pain, hope, survival, and quiet strength, all woven together by history.

What touched me the most was how much this story reminded me of the hardship, heartbreak, and separation our ancestors lived through and how those wounds still echo today. As a Black British woman with Nigerian parents who knows her heritage, her tribe, her roots, I know that is such a privilege. So many black people in the diaspora don’t have that connection, that certainty. Reading Homegoing made me feel both heartbroken and grateful. Heartbroken for the lives that were torn apart, the languages lost, the names forgotten. And grateful that I can honour those stories by remembering and sharing them.

Yaa Gyasi’s writing is graceful and piercing at the same time. There’s no excess, just truth. She doesn’t shy away from the brutality of history, but she tells it with such care and intention that you feel held through every chapter. This book isn’t just about the past, it’s about legacy and the pain that travels across generations, but also the strength that endures.

If you’ve never read Homegoing, please do. It’s the kind of book that calls you to look deeper into where you come from, and reminds you why storytelling matters.

Have you read it yet? I’d love to know how it made you feel. Let’s continue the conversation in the comments.

With love,
Deborah x