![]() ![]() ![]() I sat down with Gyasi in her south Berkeley apartment to discuss how she constructed the novel, the necessity of telling stories of slavery, and how black narratives push the boundaries of realism. A moving exploration of trauma, survival, and perseverance, Homegoing provides a portrait of the African diaspora with unprecedented scope. Gyasi, a graduate from Stanford and the Iowa Writers Workshop, and whose book was just named to the longlist for the 2016 Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, illustrates how slavery and white supremacy shaped life in the African diaspora by exploring the history of a single family-one branch of which remains in what eventually becomes Ghana, while the other experiences the turbulent history of African America.īy drawing direct lines among the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, British colonialism in West Africa, and institutional racism in the United States, Gyasi makes a powerful statement about how slavery’s impact continues to reverberate in our contemporary moment. ![]() Yaa Gyasi’s recently released and critically acclaimed first novel, Homegoing (320 pages Knopf) moves from late 18 th century West Africa to 21 st century California, tracking the repercussions of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. ![]()
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