Description
Book SynopsisA stunning novel, spanning generations and continents, Ghana Must Go is a tale of family drama and forgiveness, for fans of Zadie Smith and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.
Meet the Sais, a Nigerian-Ghanaian family living in the United States. A family prospering until the day father and surgeon Kweku Sai is victim of a grave injustice. Ashamed, he abandons his beautiful wife Fola and their little boys and girls, causing the family to fracture and spiral out into the world - New York, London, West Africa, New England - on uncertain, troubled journeys until, many years later, tragedy unites them. Now this broken family has a chance to heal - but can the Sais take it?
''Ghana Must Go is both a fast moving story of one family''s fortunes and an ecstatic exploration of the inner lives of its members. With her perfectly-pitched prose and flawless technique, Selasi does more than merely renew our sense of the African novel: she renews our sense of the novel, period. An astonishing debut'' Teju Cole, author of Open City
Trade ReviewThis book is rich and deep, mesmerizing and spectacular. At times I felt it opened a portal onto something grand and profound about love and blood and the ties that bind. Read it and you will feel what great literature can
do: you will feel you are more vividly alive -- Anna Funder
Ghana Must Go is both a fast moving story of one family's fortunes and an ecstatic exploration of the inner lives of its members. With her perfectly-pitched prose and flawless technique, Selasi does more than merely renew our sense of the African novel: she renews our sense of the novel, period. An astonishing debut -- Teju Cole, author of * Open City *
An eye for the perfect detail . . . an unforgettable voice on the page . . . miss out on
Ghana Must Go and you will miss
one of the best new novels of the season * The Economist *
Taiye Selasi is the woman the literary world is drooling over . . . [
Ghana Must Go] is technically ambitious, poetically dense . . . an unpredictable family story of love, abandonment, aspiration and migration -- Claire Allfree * Metro *
Taiye Selasi writes with glittering poetic command, a sense of daring, and a deep emotional investment in the lives and transformations of her characters . . . a powerful portrait of a broken family -- Diana Evans * Guardian *
A most impressive first novel. . . She manages a generous coverage of time and space with adroit concision, along with a vibrant range of characters. The family is so convincing, with those telling problems of divided culture. Very much a novel of today -- Penelope Lively
Taiye Selasi is a young writer of staggering gifts and extraordinary sensitivity.
Ghana Must Go seems to contain the entire world, and I shall never forget it -- Elizabeth Gilbert, author of * Eat, Pray, Love *
With mesmerizing craftsmanship and massive imagination [Taiye Selasi] takes the reader on an unforgettable journey across continents and most importantly deeply into the lives of the people whom she writes about. She de-"exoticizes" whole populations and demographics and brings them firmly into the readers view as complicated and complex human beings.
Ghana Must Go is a big novel, elemental, meditative, and mesmerizing -- Sapphire, author of * The Kid and Push *
In
Ghana Must Go, Selasi drives the six characters skillfully through past and present, unearthing old betrayals and unexplained grievances at a delicious pace. By the time the surviving five convene at a funeral in Ghana, we are invested in their reconciliation--which is both realistically shaky and dramatically satisfying ... Narrative gold * Elle *
Selasi's ambition - to show her readers not "Africa" but one African family, authors of their own achievements and failures - is one that can be applauded no matter what accent you give the word -- Nell Freudenberger * The New York Times *
The first line of Taiye Selasi's buoyant first novel,
Ghana Must Go, captures the book in miniature: "Kweku dies barefoot on a Sunday before sunrise, his slippers by the doorway to the bedroom like dogs." The springy dactylic meter of the prose (KWEku dies BAREfoot on a . . .), the sly internal rhymes (Sunday, sunrise, doorway), the surprising twist on a cliché (to die like a dog), the invigorating mixture of darkness and drollery are a big part of what makes this book such a joy... It's an auspicious how-do-you-do to the world, and nearly every page of the novel displays the same bounce and animation... rapturous. * Wall Street Journal *
