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Yaa Gyasi: Homegoing (Hardcover, 2016, Alfred A. Knopf) 4 stars

A novel of breathtaking sweep and emotional power that traces three hundred years in Ghana …

Review of 'Homegoing' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

This is less a novel and more a collection of connected short stories. I recently read "Barkskins" by Annie Proulx, which is very similar insofar as it follows multiple characters down through generations, and I have many of the same criticisms. Being introduced to so many characters, many who we follow for fewer than 30 pages, makes it tough to care about any of them as individuals. Both books detail the way that injustice is carried down through generations. But "Homegoing" provides an interesting contextualization of a history that I've only read about in a dry, non-fictional context, and the book helps to make it feel much more real and immediate.