Transcendent Kingdom

A novel (A Read with Jenna Pick)

By: Yaa Gyasi

Narrated by: Bahni Turpin

Length: 8 hrs and 40 mins

Publisher's summary

New York Times Best Seller • A Today Show #ReadWithJenna Book Club Pick! • Finalist for the Women's Prize

Yaa Gyasi's stunning follow-up to her acclaimed national best seller Homegoing is a powerful, raw, intimate, deeply layered novel about a Ghanaian family in Alabama.

Gifty is a sixth-year PhD candidate in neuroscience at the Stanford University School of Medicine studying reward-seeking behavior in mice and the neural circuits of depression and addiction. Her brother, Nana, was a gifted high school athlete who died of a heroin overdose after an ankle injury left him hooked on OxyContin. Her suicidal mother is living in her bed. Gifty is determined to discover the scientific basis for the suffering she sees all around her. But even as she turns to the hard sciences to unlock the mystery of her family's loss, she finds herself hungering for her childhood faith and grappling with the evangelical church in which she was raised, whose promise of salvation remains as tantalizing as it is elusive.

Transcendent Kingdom is a deeply moving portrait of a family of Ghanaian immigrants ravaged by depression and addiction and grief - a novel about faith, science, religion, love. Exquisitely written, emotionally searing, this is an exceptionally powerful follow-up to Gyasi's phenomenal debut.

©2020 Yaa Gyasi (P)2020 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

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
Harper’s Bazaar ● NPR ● Good Housekeeping ● Glamour ● Book 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

A Multi-sensory Experience

Perfect for the reader who wants to feel something while reading. The story is compelling and the characters are so well developed that it is impossible for a reader not to be "in their shoes."

This phenomenon is aided by the narration, which is skillfully done in a manner that captures many ages, accents and genders to facilitate the reader's conjuring of the characters.

Moving and beautiful.

Loved it! Loved the journey with this immigrant family that came to the US with the best of intentions and the biggest of dreams, only to find themselves ill equipped for what life here is truly like. Deeply moving.

Touches on many deep topics

I love how Gyasi lives together topics of racism, the USA immigrant experience, and faith versus science. I found myself drawn to the protagonist, particularly in the way she interrogated her own religious beliefs and background.

Splendid!

I laughed! I cried! Loved the story and the narration. I could not stop listening.

Transcendent indeed.

So grateful to NPR for making me aware of this marvelous novel. Am recovering from hip surgery and although not a usual Audible user, it simplified my life right now. The narrator is amazing, utterly believable in all the voices. The book is richly complex and compelling from start to finish

Poetic

A different book altogether from Homegoing, but masterful nonetheless. I loved the characters, and the vignettes telling the narrator’s story.

Beautifully written

This is an amazing story that brings to life trauma that the southern evangelical church quietly places in young spirits.

Must listen

I haven’t read a lot of fiction in the last few years but I so glad I indulged in this. It was just as rewarding and beneficial as my non fiction favs. I know I left with more wisdom, knowledge and understanding of myself and others. 5 stars and many recommendations. Bahni Turpin was the best voice for Gifty
on Audible. Definitely reading another book by Yaa Gyasi.

Mental illness and the church
The Bible—the truth & the lies told about it
Relatable Emotions
Love—the kind that just touches the surface to the deepest kind that can’t fit into words
Relationships...their complicated
People have so many layers
We are complicated
Beautifully strung together words that ignited all five senses
Religion plays a huge part of the lives where it has been the foundation...some good to great, some bad to horrible
The humans response to pain varies in a rainbow of ways that can’t be explained away with a simple word or diagnosis
Family. Immigration. Prestige. Poverty. Racism. Life. Death.
JUST READ IT!

Such a well done story and audio performance

Intricate weaving story of love, loss, roller coaster of depression, addiction, and search for self and meaning. Thought provoking, compelling, and wonderful character development. Highly recommend

I grew up like this...

I grew up Pentecostal. In ways, I can tell Yaa Gyasi did her research... or grew up Pentecostal. This is a good listen.

4 stars for this reason: The storyteller does get “preachy.” It seems a he uses the Main character, Gifty, as a way to tell the world all of her personal feelings. When Gifty would go into these drawn out explanations of her thoughts concerning God or how the reader should feel about a social topic, I felt it was a kind of an indoctrination.

I would suggest this book.