Homegoing

Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi, 304 pages.

Gyasi's first novel follows two half-sisters and their descendants over 250 years. The novel begins and spends half its time in the Asante and Fante lands that eventually become Ghana. The two half sisters, Effia and Esi, who don't know much about each other, find vastly different lives. Effia is married to one of the British slavers at the Cape Coast Castle on Africa's Gold Coast. Esi is captured and sold into slavery, passing through that same castle. Esi's descendants live in America, as slaves, runaways and then free people. Effia's descendants must deal with the guilt and burden of working in the slave trade and then with the increasing colonial pressure from the British. An interesting story told in brief glimpses of a variety of people over the years.