From the plantations of the South to the Civil War and the Great Migration, from the coal mines of Pratt City, Alabama, to the jazz clubs and dope houses of twentieth-century Harlem, right up through the present day, Homegoing makes history visceral, and captures, with singular and stunning immediacy, how the memory of captivity came to be inscribed in the soul of a nation.

Taking place over two and a half centuries, the book traces the descendants of Effia and Esi. The other thread follows Esi and her children into America. This summer, Homegoing is one of three books assigned to all incoming Stanford freshmen. One thread of Homegoing follows Effia’s descendants through centuries of warfare in Ghana, as the Fante and Asante nations wrestle with the slave trade and British colonization. Unbeknownst to Effia, her sister, Esi, is imprisoned beneath her in the castle’s dungeons, sold with thousands of others into the Gold Coast’s booming slave trade, and shipped off to America, where her children and grandchildren will be raised in slavery. Effia is married off to an Englishman and lives in comfort in the palatial rooms of Cape Coast Castle. The novel was first published in 2016 and is considered of the historic fiction genre. Book enhanced with curriculum aligned questions and activities. Homegoing is the first novel by Yaa Gyasi, a Ghanaian-American author. Effia and Esi are born into different villages in eighteenth-century Ghana. Read Homegoing: A novel by Gyasi, Yaa, lexile & reading level: 910, (ISBN: 9781101947142). One of Oprahs Best Books of the Year and a PEN/Hemingway award winner, Homegoing follows the parallel paths of these sisters and their descendants through. Written with tremendous sweep and power, Homegoing traces the generations of family who follow, as their destinies lead them through two continents and three hundred years of history, each life indeliably drawn, as the legacy of slavery is fully revealed in light of the present day. The unforgettable New York Times bestseller begins with the story of two half-sisters, separated by forces beyond their control: one sold into slavery, the other married to a British slaver.

Homegoing book