YAA GYASI was born in Ghana and raised in Huntsville, Alabama. Her debut novel, Homegoing, won her the National Book Critics Circle’s John Leonard Award for best first book, the PEN/Hemingway Award for a first book of fiction, the National Book Foundation’s “5 under 35” honors for 2016, and the American Book Award. She lives in Brooklyn.
AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
A TODAY SHOW #ReadWithJenna BOOK CLUB PICK!
FINALIST FOR WOMEN'S FICTION PRIZE
LONGLISTED FOR PEN/FAULKNER AWARD FOR FICTION
LONGLISTED FOR THE DUBLIN LITERARY AWARD
A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR
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Riot ● Library Journal ● Washington Post ● Amazon ●
Marie Claire ● Kirkus Reviews ● Vanity Fair ●
Entertainment Weekly ● Town and Country ● Indigo ● BBC ●
USA Today ● Parade ● Real Simple ● Apartment
Therapy ● Refinery29
"Gyasi sometimes reminds me of other writers who’ve addressed the
immigrant experience in America—Jhumpa Lahiri and Yiyun Li in
particular.... As in the work of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie or
the Ghanaian-American short-story writer Nana Kwame
Adjei-Brenyah, the African immigrants in this novel exist at a
certain remove from American racism, victims but also outsiders,
marveling at the peculiar blindnesses of the locals...brilliant...
Transcendent Kingdom trades the blazing brilliance of Homegoing for
another type of glory, more granular and difficult to name."
—Nell Freudenberger, The New York Times Book Review
“The novel is full of brilliantly revealing moments, sometimes
funny, often poignant.... [Gifty is] provokingly vital.”
—James Wood, The New Yorker
"Yaa Gyasi’s profoundly moving second novel takes place in the
vast, fragile landscape where the mysteries of God and the
certainties of science collide. Through deliberate and precise
prose, the book becomes an expansive meditation on grief, religion,
and family."
—The Boston Globe
"Laser-like... A powerful, wholly unsentimental novel about
family love, loss, belonging and belief that is more focused but
just as daring as its predecessor, and to my mind even more
successful… [Transcendent Kingdom] is burningly dedicated to the
question of meaning… The pressure created gives her novel a hard,
beautiful, diamantine luster.”
—Sam Sacks, The Wall Street Journal
"A book of blazing brilliance ... of profound scientific and
spiritual reflection that recalls the works of Richard Powers and
Marilynne Robinson... A double helix of wisdom and rage twists
through the quiet lines...Thank God, we have this remarkable
novel."
—Ron Charles, The Washington Post
"A luminous, heartbreaking and redemptive American story,
Transcendent Kingdom is the mark of a brilliant writer who is just
getting started."
—Seattle Times
"If You Read One Book This Year, Make It Yaa Gyasi's Transcendent
Kingdom."
—Pop Sugar
"A stealthily devastating novel of family, faith and identity
that’s as philosophical as it is personal... It’s bravura
storytelling by Gyasi, so different in scope, tone and style from
her 2016 debut Homegoing. That, too, was brilliant literature, as
expansive as Transcendent Kingdom is interior...The range Gyasi
displays in just two books is staggering."
—USA Today
"“Elegant... burrows into the philosophical, exploring with
complexity what it might mean for us to live without firm answers
to the mysteries that wound us... The measured restraint of
Gyasi’s prose makes the story’s challenging questions all the more
potent."
—The San Francisco Chronicle
"Poised to be the literary event of the fall."
—Entertainment Weekly
"I would say that Transcendent Kingdom is a novel for our time (and
it is) but it is so much more than that. It is a novel for all
times. The splendor and heart and insight and brilliance contained
in the pages holds up a light the rest of us can
follow."
—Ann Patchett
"Absolutely transcendent. A gorgeously woven narrative about a
woman trying to survive the grief of a brother lost to addiction
and a mother trapped in depression while pursuing her ambitions.
Not a word or idea out of place. Completely different from
Homegoing. THE RANGE. I am quite angry this is so good."
—Roxane Gay
"[Transcendent Kingdom] will stay with you long after you’ve
finished it."
—Real Simple
"Meticulous, psychologically complex...At once a vivid evocation of
the immigrant experience and a sharp delineation of an individual’s
inner struggle, the novel brilliantly succeeds on both counts."
—Publishers Weekly [starred review]
"Gyasi’s wise second novel pivots toward intimacy... In
precise prose, Gyasi creates an ache of recognition, especially for
readers knowledgeable about the wreckage of addiction. Still, she
leavens this nonlinear novel with sly humor... The author is
astute about childhood grandiosity and a pious girl’s deep desire
to be good; she conveys in brief strokes the notched, nodding hook
of heroin’s oblivion...final chapter that gives readers a taste of
hard-won deliverance."
—Kirkus Reviews [starred review]
"Unforgettable... Transcendent Kingdom has an expansive scope that
ranges into fresh, relevant territories—much like the title, which
suggests a better world beyond the life we inhabit."
—BookPage [starred review]
"With deft agility andundeniable artistry, Gyasi’s latest is an
eloquent examination of resilient survival."
—Booklist
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