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What Members Thought
This was a beautiful book. I loved reading about the seven generations of two African families and seeing the similarities and differences between their two paths.
It wasn't always an easy book to read - there's slavery, oppression, betrayal and heartbreak. But it was powerful and thought provoking and deeply true. If you want an epic that's moving but also easy to read, you can't do much better than this book.
I hope Yaa Gyasi has many more books inside her because I will read all of them. ...more
It wasn't always an easy book to read - there's slavery, oppression, betrayal and heartbreak. But it was powerful and thought provoking and deeply true. If you want an epic that's moving but also easy to read, you can't do much better than this book.
I hope Yaa Gyasi has many more books inside her because I will read all of them. ...more
What an incredible novel, and amazing that this is Ms. Gyasi’s debut! This was the only book club novel I missed, and it was everyone’s favorite, so I knew I needed to catch up as soon as summer came. Wow...I picked the wrong month to be busy! In only 300 pages, Yaa Gyasi follows a family through 7 generations to show the devastating impact of slavery and colonialism on both Ghana and the U.S. The novel is structured as kind of a short story collection made up of one chapter for each of 14 chara
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This is a beautiful, very well written book about a long line of family heritage, tradition and history. From Gold Coast to slave ship to Southern America. From tribe wars and slavery and Civil War - this is a huge book with important topics, but somehow it is written in a very engaging and digestible way. Kudos to Yaa Gyasi for her debut. It's truly exceptional.
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Jan 31, 2019
Christina
rated it
it was amazing
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review of another edition
Shelves:
historical-fiction,
tbr-for-2019
Beautifully written, weaving through the lives of 14 people across the generations (I believe it covers about 300 years?). The story of two sisters who've never met, whose lives are both irrevocably shaken by the slave trade in Africa and then over to England and America. This book is so well researched and manages to cover over 14 chapters many culturally relevant topics from various aspects of the slave trade, sexual trauma, substance use, freedom, identity, and as the name suggests, coming ho
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I feel weird not having a stronger reaction to this book but I struggled to establish an emotional connection to it, despite really admiring the abundant skill in its execution. It's a hugely accomplished interweaving of twin histories, covering hundreds of years on both sides of the Atlantic that come together in a truly glorious moment of hope at the story's end.
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Beautiful
A tremendously moving ,transgenerational story about race, history and our inability to escape the past, no matter how much time passes or how far we move from our roots
A tremendously moving ,transgenerational story about race, history and our inability to escape the past, no matter how much time passes or how far we move from our roots
