Gifty is a neuroscience doctoral candidate at Stanford, studying addictive behaviors in mice. She is a brilliant student who has given her life over to her education. In fact, it is her life. She is motivated to find a cause and cure for addiction, in answer to her brother’s death by drug overdose. He was the family’s shining start and his addiction to prescription painkillers and his death is central to the story.

She is Alabama born of Ghanan parents. She has grown up in her mother’s church and embraced her mother’s religion, but the losses in her life stack up and her God becomes her studies, though at the same time she remains unsure about God. Gifty’s life is complex as she tries to reconcile her roots in Ghana with her depressed mother, her church and her outsider position in the South.

At Stanford she learns about “anhedonia,” the psychiatric term for the inability to derive pleasure from things that are normally pleasurable. “It’s the characterizing symptom in major depressive disorder, but it can also be a symptom of substance abuse, schizophrenia, Parkinson’s disease....Anhedonia was the feeling of ‘nothing,’ the thing that kept my mother in her bed.” Her mother’s crippling depression was one of the pieces of the puzzle that Gifty was trying to put together. Nothing was easy for her and she never quit trying. Beautifully written.

This is a wonderful coming of age book. It is a mother-daughter story. It is a personal story of a girl coming to terms with her childhood fundamental religious training vs. science and the trials of life. It is a story of the pain of experiencing racial prejudice and it is a story of dealing with loss and grief.
Yaa Gyasi is a powerful, gifted writer.

Thank you NetGalley for an advanced copy of Transcendent Kingdom.

I absolutely loved Homegoing by Yahh Gyasi, so I was excited to read her second book. Unfortunately, Transcendent Kingdom didn't work for me. While I enjoyed Grifty's story, and her interactions with others, there was so much inner monologue in this novel. She is a scientist, with childhood of trauma, and an difficult relationship with her mother, which was all fascinating and heartbreaking, but there was so many chapters of just inner conflict on religion. This story moved too slowly for me, and while it was written beautifully, I wanted more. I had a hard time connecting to it and while I understand that Grifty has locked away her feelings and emotions, I wanted to feel them.

A beautiful read! One of my top five books in the last few years! I honestly haven’t felt the need to underline fiction since college, but Transcendent Kingdom had so many poignant pages wrestling with faith and religion and science and family. I appreciate the ARC, but will need to buy a copy for myself and will be gifting this!

“I don’t want to be thought of as a woman in science, a Black woman in science,” Gifty says early in the book. She has been raised Christian in Huntsville Alabama by her mother, an immigrant from Ghana. In this novel, Gyasi explores the differences between the home in which Gifty grew up what she finds outside. Her big brother, Nana, who Gifty admires dies of an overdose and this leads Gifty to research what happens to the brain when addiction takes hold. She did her undergraduate study at Harvard and her post graduate neurology study at Stanford. Moving back and forth from her childhood experiences to her adult experiences, Gifty also explores her evangelical religious beliefs with what she believes as a scientist. And along with that Gifty has created a beautiful portrait of her mother who she referred to as “The Black Mamba” in her childhood journal.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a free digital advanced reading copy in exchange for an honest review. I loved Yaa Gyasi's debut novel - Homegoing. Homegoing was a sweeping saga that crossed centuries, with many interrelated characters. This novel is completely different. It focuses on just a few characters, an immigrant mother and her children. Whereas Homegoing had a linear timeline, Transcendent Kingdom flashes forward and backward in time. Despite that, it's not difficult to follow. The book is well-written and the characters are interesting. They grow across the course of the novel. I felt that the ending was rushed and it fell flat. In my opinion this book wasn't quite as good as Homegoing - it's only 4 stars instead of 5!

Transcendent Kingdom is a novel examining the very heavy themes of science, addiction, grief and faith, and how they intersect through the lens of a single family unit. I read and enjoyed Gyasi's incredible novel Homegoing, and this novel is similar in tone and style yet unique in its focus. The perspective of story told through family history is strong and present, and it's an effective form of narrative. Transcendent Kingdom shows how the individual members of families have the ability to influence and drastically change the course of other family member's lives. The science/faith aspect of this novel is front and center, which is not usually something that I'm overly interested in, but it's presented in an engaging enough way. Overall, this novel will probably not stick with me quite like Homegoing did, but fans of novels that dissect family dynamics should find this one enjoyable.

The true brilliance of Yaa Gyasi’s writing is so evident in this book! It was so captivating and I loved the way Yaa pieced together Gifty and her families story. You feel like you’re right there with Gifty and Nana. The author wonderfully depicts the way that addiction affects not only the addict, but their family members. Transcendent Kingdom brings us into the deep emotional lifelong journey of Gifty and her mom before and after Nana’s addiction.

Yaa Gyasi's debut, Homegoing, is the book I am constantly recommending and handing to people, so this next book was one of my most anticipated this year. I was not disappointed. While this is very different from Homegoing, the author has crafted an emotional, powerful story about addiction, family, faith, mental health, immigration, and more. This was truly incredibly done, and I think readers who have also been eagerly anticipating what the author will do next will not be disappointed.

This is beautifully written book that interweaves many important topics: race, immigration, drug addiction, and religion. My full review is available at the link below

A Heartbreaking Work of Ghanaian Genius.
This is an intimate portrayal of a brilliant researcher, daughter of Ghanaian-born immigrants, sister of a drug addict. Gyasi seamlessly incorporates all of these identities into a deeply sympathetic but never melodramatic character. The scenes that describe Gifty's brother's, Nana, addiction are moving and heartwrenching, the kind of descriptive writing that makes your stomach hurt. Her ruminations and questions of faith are equally engrossing, yet contemplative at the same time. Is there a plot? Perhaps not. But stories like this aren't read with the expectation of a neatly tied bowed at the end.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC.

I thought Yaa Gyasi's debut novel HOMEGOING was fantastic, and I was really looking forward to TRANSCENDENT KINGDOM for that reason, among others. Unfortunately, although it is exceptionally well-written and poignant, Gyasi's sophomore novel fell a bit short for me.

Gifty is a brilliant scientist from a Ghanaian-American family ravaged by addiction and depression. As she tries to make sense of the suffering around her, Gifty's elite education and methodical, questioning mind are often at odds with her evangelical upbringing and personal insecurities. The reader is privy to Gifty's inner thoughts on her quest for clarity, growth, and emotional maturity.

KINGDOM is a short novel, but it moves very slowly. Little happens in the present day, and Gifty presents her flashbacks in a clinical, unemotional manner on the surface, though the subtle reader will see the immense grief that underlies these memories. The blurb describes the book as raw and intimate, but I'm not sure that Gifty ever reaches that level. She hides her feelings so well, even from herself, to the very end of the book. I don't think she ever delved deep enough to hit the rawness at the heart of her pain, though she certainly comes close.

A considerable portion of the book is devoted to Gifty's internal conflict between religious faith and science. These monologues are full of quotes and anecdotes and are very well-written. And yet, despite how aptly her thoughts encompass this age-old struggle (or maybe because of it), I was bored by the topic and felt it only slowed the book down more.

KINGDOM is a clinical self-examination by a damaged young woman. If inner monologues of a philosophical nature appeal to you, you will likely enjoy Gyasi's new novel.

Gifty is the narrator of this novel about a family of immigrants from Ghana who settle in Alabama. The mother is an evangelical Christian, and as a young girl Gifty was deeply involved in her church. Now as an adult, Gifty is a Stanford neuroscientist who studies reward-seeking behavior in mice. We learn that Gifty's mother is suffering from a second bout of debilitating depression and she moves in with Gifty. In flashbacks we learn that Gifty's magnetic, charming older brother died of an opioid overdose many years ago and that tragedy has shaped Gifty and her mother's present situation. This book is an exploration of science and religion and how mental health issues can strain relationships. Unlike the author's first novel, this is a slow paced story about the inner life of a family of three members. The author is clearly gifted and this introspective book will get great reviews and be well-received. I was much more invested in Yaa Gyasi's first book, Homegoing, which spanned continents and time periods.

Simply stunning. No sophomore slump for Yaa Gyasi! "Transcendent Kingdom" is very different from "Homegoing" but has the same beautiful and very effective writing. Every word, phrase, and sentence is perfectly crafted. The thought, emotion, and story in so few pages is incredible. This is the best fiction I've read this year.

What a beautiful, multilayered story that was written so open and honest. Yaa Gyasi delivered another incredible book, although different from Homegoing, but just as incredible, that covered several sensitive subjects, such as drug addiction, depression, mother/daughter relationships, and the struggle with faith and religion. I was deeply moved by this story and will not forget it for a long time.

Written from a child's voice then the voice of a young woman the heroine in Transcendent Kingdom struggles between faith and science or can the two mix? The young woman has a brilliant mind and is using it to try to heal her past and create and bridge to her future. Can she find a reason and "cure" for addiction and depression? Can she create a safe space for herself between faith and science? The book is enjoyable yet challenging and relevant.

Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi is about Gifty, a researcher who has been studying mice and their reward-seeking behavior. Her story moves back and forth between present-day and her childhood. She had an older brother named Nana and lived with her family in Alabama while growing up. Nana went from being the golden child in the family and community to dealing with addiction. Gifty thinks often of her brother as she conducts her research and reflects on her life. Read and enjoy!

There were some things I really liked in this book. Like the way the author captured the experience of the family when dealing with Nana's addiction. I liked the way Gifty hovered in the space between science and religion and I liked the cultural and religious comparisons between the U.S. and Ghana. However this book didn't entirely work for me and I've narrowed it down to plot, or lack of it. I am not even a plot driven reader but I think this book could have benefited from a more structured story line. It felt aimless like I was drifting around in the story with no purpose. It made for an unsatisfactory reading experience for me. So while I appreciated certain aspects of the book, I can't say it made a lasting impression on me.

I doubt there will ever be a fictional character that the reader will know as intimately as Gifty. Through her childhood journals and current thoughts, the novel exposes her struggle to deal with with her father's desertion, her mother's mental illness, her brother's addiction and death, and (perhaps most importantly) her own struggle with religious beliefs. Though brilliantly pursuing her doctorate trying to understand how to physically "fix" the addictive need in some humans, we can still identify with her fears, needs, and humanity. This is a really exceptional and insightful novel on many levels.

Thanks to NetGalley and Knopf Doubleday Publishing for the ARC to read and review.

Truly compelling. It opens a world that so many people try to hide or hide from. Gyasi is a writer to watch.