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Jan 19, 2021EljayJohnson rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
Gifty, who we meet as a doctoral candidate in a rigorous science discipline, was a pious and devout evangelical Christian as a child - as she puts it: "I spoke in tongues. The whole thing." She was raised in Alabama, the child of Ghanian immigrant parents, in a world far away from the cold laboratories of Stanford. She experienced much trauma, including abandonment, poverty, mental health issues and drug addiction of family members, and a loss of faith. And that's where we find the adult Gifty, wrestling with her same questions for both science and God, and she will not feel whole until she reaches some conclusions. I found Gifty's story very moving and Gyasi has given us a masterful exploration of someone looking for answers; personal, religious, and scientific. Also, this is Gyasi's second novel and I read her Homegoing last year and thought it was wonderful. But the two books could not be more different and it's difficult to believe the same author wrote both. The range of this young author is amazing and I can't wait to see what she does next.