The Bookish Mindset

Overview:

Title: Homegoing
Author: Yaa Gyasi
Published: June 2016
Genre: Literary
Themes: Racism, Colonialism

One sentence summary: A story of racism and colonialism that passes through generations, quite literally.

One sentence review: An exquisite piece of writing that everyone needs to read.

Review:

Effia and Esi are sisters that will never know each other. Though both of their stories will break you, there is hope through the later generations as some find hope and even love.

There’s not much more I can say about this book that hasn’t been said already. I’m sorry it took so long to get to for those who have been telling me to read for ages, but it has been such an experience now that I’ve read it.

The writing, delivery and structure is utterly brilliant. We follow the descendants of each sister down through generations and that ending is just beautiful.

It’s heartbreakingly sad and violent. It’s hard to read because of the unjustness but you can’t put it down. It’s necessary reading and I won’t stop recommending.

Trancendent Kingdom doesn’t have a spot on this. I wouldn’t even bother with it.

Let me leave you with one of my favourite quotes:

“So when you study history, you must always ask your-self, Whose story am I missing? Whose voice was suppressed so that this voice could come forth? Once you have figured that out, you must find that story too. From there, you begin to get a clearer, yet still imperfect, picture.”

If you’d like to get yourself a copy, you can support local bookshops while doing so on Bookshop.org with this link here.

If you like what you’ve read and would like to access more content, I’d love if you could take a look at my patreon and consider supporting my content on there too. You can also find more content on my Instagram here.

And don’t forget to check out my other blogs and reviews – you can find books with similar themes in the same folder link below, or click back onto blogs to see the whole offering.

Last updated 07/08/2025