A Night In with Yaa Gyasi
In conversation with Irenosen Okojie to mark the publication of Transcendent Kingdom
This event is now available to watch on demand until 25th May.
If you have any questions, please email [email protected]
Author of the Sunday Times and New York Times bestseller Homegoing, Yaa Gyasi, returns with her brand-new novel: a searing story of love, loss and redemption, and the myriad ways we try to rebuild our lives from the rubble of our collective pasts.
As a child Gifty would ask her parents to tell the story of their journey from Ghana to Alabama, seeking escape in myths of heroism and romance. When her father and brother succumb to the hard reality of immigrant life in the American South, their family of four becomes two – and the life Gifty dreamed of slips away.
Years later, desperate to understand the opioid addiction that destroyed her brother's life, she turns to science for answers. But when her mother comes to stay, Gifty soon learns that the roots of their tangled traumas reach farther than she ever thought. Tracing her family's story through continents and generations will take her deep into the dark heart of modern America.
Join Yaa in conversation with Irenosen Okojie for this exclusive event, as she considers the process of writing her gorgeously woven narrative; she’ll explore the larger-than-life nature of storytelling through fables and folklore, the process of writing with a single character and trying to see into all of the nooks and crannies of her consciousness, and the books she turns to for inspiration, from Charles Dickens to Toni Morrison. She’ll also touch on mental health among the Black community, why it was important for her to broaden the traditional immigrant narrative with this novel, and the journey towards healing.
Don’t miss this illuminating discussion about family love, loss, belonging and belief to celebrate this insightful and powerful novel for our time.