Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi

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.

It just kept getting better the further I read. And by that I mean more uncomfortable but also more vulnerable, more poignant, and so much more relevant; infinitely so in this moment – September 2020 – when the future of humanity hinges on the votes of semiliterate barbarians. Gyasi writes with much more kindness and compassion and feeling than I ever could, but she has little good to say about the horrors of Southern U.S. religiofanatical culture: the lunatically backfiring idiocy of “abstinence” education and the stigmas of mental illness, the smug hatred it instills in the poor and ignorant, the flagrant hypocrisy. And, tragically, the permanent scarring it leaves even on those of us lucky enough to escape it.

But it's much more than that. It's a beautiful book dealing with growth, addiction, Grit, kindness, trust, loneliness, and The Big Questions of life. The first-person narration infuses it with intimacy and authenticity: I felt all the feels, intensely. I related to the narrator, rooted for her, felt her fear and shame and resolve. And, it's a scientifically literate book! About a nerd! I mean, how much better does it get?

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.