Reading Order
Homegoing Reading Order
Yaa Gyasi's Homegoing (2016) is a complete standalone novel. There is no sequel. The novel follows two half-sisters in 18th-century Ghana — Effia, who marries a British colonial officer, and Esi, who is sold into the Atlantic slave trade — and then traces each sister's lineage through eight chapters, one per generation, from the 1750s through contemporary Harlem. Each chapter follows a new descendant, a new historical moment, and a new dimension of what the slave trade and its aftermath produce across centuries.
Where to start
Homegoing
Complete Homegoing Book List
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Homegoing
Yaa Gyasi·2016·Standalone — two half-sisters in 18th-century Ghana begin a family history Gyasi traces through eight generations across two continents; a debut novel
Homegoing — Frequently Asked Questions
Is Homegoing a standalone?
Yes — Homegoing is a complete standalone novel. Yaa Gyasi's second novel, Transcendent Kingdom (2020), is an entirely independent standalone about a neuroscience PhD student and her relationship with her mother.
Is Homegoing hard to follow with so many characters?
Homegoing introduces a new protagonist in each of its fourteen chapters — one per generation per lineage — which means the cast is always changing. Most readers find that the chapter structure (each a complete story in itself) makes the individual characters vivid enough that the transitions are natural rather than confusing. A family tree at the front of the book helps track the lineages.
Is Homegoing historical fiction?
Homegoing spans from the 1750s through the early 21st century, which makes most of it historical fiction. But Gyasi's interest is not in documenting history as such — each chapter is a short story about a specific person in a specific historical moment, and the accumulated effect is about how history lives in individual lives across generations rather than about history as an archive of events.
How does Homegoing relate to Colson Whitehead and Toni Morrison?
Homegoing, The Underground Railroad, and Beloved are the three most discussed contemporary novels about the African Atlantic world and American slavery. Homegoing begins in Ghana and traces both sides of the slave trade across the full Atlantic arc; The Underground Railroad focuses on the escape from slavery; Beloved focuses on the psychological aftermath. Reading all three gives a comprehensive picture.
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