I was hugely impressed by the author’s ability to show keen insight into the comfort and failings inherent to both, without sitting in judgement of those who turn to either. Chiefly, whether belief in science and religion can coexist, and if either can ever offer true closure for distinctly human problems. With this setup, Gyasi is able to explore a myriad of fascinating themes. As she seeks to understand the nature of freewill in the face of addiction, she hopes to better understand how her brother could have pushed himself to the fate he endured. With religion having failed to provide her with answers to the how and why of her family’s suffering, Gifty now devotes herself to her scientific research.

Despite her very Christian upbringing, Gifty has largely turned her back on the church, her faith having been pushed too far by her father’s abandonment, her brother’s drug related death, and her mother’s resulting depression. We follow Gifty, a 28-year-old scientist living in America, daughter to Ghanaian immigrant parents. But around the half-way point, once the focus shifted firmly onto the book’s primary thematic concerns, it completely won me round.

Because of these qualities, I must confess it took me some time to get drawn in, worrying initially that the narrative would remain too emotionally distant and lacking a sense of drive. It’s slow and ruminative with next to no plot beyond what we’re told in the synopsis, and it deliberately denies readers answers to the big questions it poses. Despite the largely rave reviews that have been pouring in, and how much I admired it myself, I can see why this novel might not work for everyone.

Reviews of transcendent kingdom