Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi

LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2021

From the bestselling author of Homegoing

'A book of blazing brilliance' Washington Post

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.

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

' 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