"Transcendent Kingdom" by Yaa Gyasi is a novel that delves into the complex life of Gifty, a Ghanaian immigrant and neuroscience Ph.D. candidate at Stanford University. The story follows Gifty as she navigates the challenges of family dynamics, addiction, mental health, religion, and the pursuit of scientific knowledge. Through non-linear storytelling, Gyasi weaves a narrative that explores Gifty's internal struggles, her relationships with her family members, and her quest to reconcile her scientific beliefs with her religious upbringing.
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Sensitive Topics/Content Warnings
Content warnings include themes of addiction, drug overdose, severe mental illness, grief, and racism.
From The Publisher:
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
A TODAY SHOW #ReadWithJenna BOOK CLUB PICK!
Finalist for the WOMEN'S PRIZE
Yaa Gyasi's stunning follow-up to her acclaimed national bestseller Homegoing is "a book of blazing brilliance" (The Washington Post)-a powerful, raw, intimate, deeply layered novel about a Ghanaian family in Alabama.
Gifty is a sixth-year PhD candidate in neuroscience at the Stanford University School of Medicine studying reward-seeking behavior in mice and the neural circuits of depression and addiction. Her brother, Nana, was a gifted high school athlete who died of a heroin overdose after an ankle injury left him hooked on OxyContin. Her suicidal mother is living in her bed.
Gifty is determined to discover the scientific basis for the suffering she sees all around her. But even as she turns to the hard sciences to unlock the mystery of her family's loss, she finds herself hungering for her childhood faith and grappling with the evangelical church in which she was raised, whose promise of salvation remains as tantalizing as it is elusive.
Ratings (28)
Incredible (7) | |
Loved It (7) | |
Liked It (9) | |
It Was OK (4) | |
Did Not Like (1) |
Reader Stats (74):
Read It (28) | |
Want To Read (36) | |
Not Interested (10) |
1 comment(s)
Update 8 October 2021
I first read it in October of last year, well listened to it. Decided to reread this when I saw the book in my library as I hoped it would work more for me in the written format and I'm glad I did. It's an emotional book that was hard to put down as I wanted to learn more about the characters and what was going to happened. Very good book and I'm glad I gave it a second chance. The grief bit really hot me harder reading the physical book
3.5 stars. It was a beautiful book about greif and family. Listen to the swedish translation on audiobook, perhaps if I had read it instead I would have giving it more, but I did enjoy it.
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Transcendent Kingdom?
About the Author:
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 Brooklyn.YAA…
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