Transcendent Kingdom
Ratings103
Average rating4.2
15
Ratings103
Average rating4.2
Gifty is a sixth-year PhD candidate in neuroscience at 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. Transcendent Kingdom is a deeply moving portrait of a family of Ghanaian immigrants ravaged by depression and addiction and grief--a novel about faith, science, religion, love. Exquisitely written, emotionally searing, this is an exceptionally powerful follow-up to Gyasi's phenomenal debut.
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Reviews with the most likes.
As always, Bahni Turpin delivered a genius audio performance. I appreciated the meditative interiority of this novel and how Gyasi deliver yet another masterclass in novel structure and narrative layers. Some truly gorgeous writing at the sentence level as well, enough to stop the book repeatedly and listen a few times over to appreciate. Tragic and contemplative, with some humorous wry observations, and ruminations on science and religion and selfhood that will stick with me. Very different from Homegoing but just as impressive.
it's official: i will read anything yaa gyasi writes
while there are so many topics discussed and explored in this book, my favorite part was how expertly it was all connected by gyasi without feeling like there was extensive reaching, which really does speak to the interconnectedness of it all. in trying to “reason away” humans, life and nature with science or religion, we forget to take into account humanity and all of its complexity.
Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi
“There is no living thing on God's green earth that doesn't come to know pain sometime.”
― Yaa Gyasi, Transcendent Kingdom
