Thank you to Edelweiss, Knopf, & Random House for the opportunity to read and review this book before it's publication date! This in no way affected my review, opinions are my own.

After reading Homegoing, I knew I had to read Yaa Gyasi's next novel. After reading Transcendent Kingdom, I know I have to read everything she ever writes. 

Gyasi does not write easy stories. They push and pull at you, making you work for them. They challenge you and hurt you, while also building you up and showing you so much of the beautiful parts of being a part of this world. 

Transcendent Kingdom was probably one of the hardest books I read last year, but it is also one that will stick with me for years to come. The story is that of Gifty, a daughter and a sister and a friend and a believer and a PHD student, who is trying to understand the way that she fits into all of these roles and how the world moves around her, bringing both destruction and hope.

There are so many themes that Gyasi explores in this novel, but the one that I found most compelling was Gifty's relationship with the church and her faith. (The depictions of grief and addiction were also particularly moving - but those were much harder to read.) 

Yaa Gyasi is a brilliant storyteller, and her ability to weave in and out of time periods of Gifty's life without once losing the reader is near perfection. 

This one comes just as highly recommended as Homegoing, but maybe sandwich it with some lighter reads.