Yaa Gyasi

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I am not big on novels, but this is one of the best books I have ever read. Ghanaian-American novelist Yaa Gyasi is weaving the fate of seven generations interlinked by intergenerational trauma into an enthralling story. From two sisters who grew up in 17th century Ghana, one sold into slavery, the other becoming a slave trader’s wife, to present-day America and Ghana, where their descendants, unknown to each other, are haunted by the legacy of their family histories. From the Gold Coast of Ghana over the cotton plantations of the American South to New York, this novel gives an intimate insight into the horrors of the slave trade and the effect it has to date on families affected by it. Heartbreaking and healing at once!

“The night Effia Otcher was born into the musky heat of Fanteland, a fire raged through the woods just outside her father’s compound. It moved quickly, tearing a path for days. It lived off the air; it slept in caves and hid in trees; it burned, up and through, unconcerned with what wreckage it left behind, until it reached an Asante village. There, it disappeared, becoming one with the night.”