The New York Times :
“The unhealed ruptures of slavery, persistent as memory and rubbed raw in such an instant, course through Homegoing, the hypnotic debut novel by Yaa Gyasi, a stirringly gifted young writer, that contemplates the consequences of human trafficking on both sides of the Atlantic. The book tells the story of two half sisters unknown to each other and of the six generations that follow, their lineages broken by enslavement and cursed by premonitions that condemned those who were captured, those who were spared and those who sold hostages to the Europeans.” ― Review by Isabel Wilkerson
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The Guardian :
“An unflinching portrayal of the slave trade explores its impact down the generations, from 18th-century west Africa to the modern-day US “― Review by Diana Evans
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The Kenyon Review :
“Gyasi’s application of the linked story structure to the genealogy of the enslaved is particularly brilliant. By having the characters move chronologically through time without skipping generations, Gyasi draws a direct and unbroken line from the original trauma of slavery to the present day. She thereby argues, through the book’s very structure, that racism has not been extinguished over time, but merely institutionalized. Her wide temporal gauge is necessary to depict slavery’s propensity to constantly shift form.” ― Review by Kate Osana Simonian
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Nancy Khoutsavanh ’18