Homegoing
SynopsisPlot
Ghana, eighteenth century: two half sisters are born into different villages, each unaware of the other. One will marry an Englishman and lead a life of comfort in the palatial rooms of the Cape Coast Castle. The other will be captured in a raid on her village, imprisoned in the very same castle, and sold into slavery. Homegoing follows the parallel paths of these sisters and their descendants through eight generations: from the Gold Coast to the plantations of Mississippi, from the American Civil War to Jazz Age Harlem.
Story
About this book
In eighteenth-century Ghana, two half sisters are born to the same Asante mother but raised in separate villages, neither knowing the other exists. Their lives converge at Cape Coast Castle, a British-controlled fort on the Gold Coast. Effia marries the English governor and lives in the upper rooms of the castle. Esi is captured in a raid, held in the dungeons below, and sold into slavery.
Each chapter of Homegoing follows a new character, one descendant per generation, alternating between the two family lines. One branch extends through Ghana across the centuries. The other moves through the American South, the Civil War, and northward to Harlem during the Jazz Age. The structure spans roughly three hundred years and eight generations, tracing how the slave trade shaped daily life and identity on both sides of the ocean.
Yaa Gyasi's first novel appeared in 2016. Honours listed for it include the John Leonard Award from the National Book Critics Circle, which recognises a debut, the 2017 Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award, and an American Book Award. The setting is anchored in Cape Coast Castle, a real fort in present-day Ghana that held captives before they were shipped across the Atlantic.
