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New York Times Best Seller A Today Show #ReadWithJenna Book Club Pick! Finalist for the Women's Prize

Yaa Gyasi's stunning follow-up to her acclaimed national best seller Homegoing is a powerful, raw, intimate, deeply layered novel about a Ghanaian family in Alabama.

Gifty is a sixth-year PhD candidate in neuroscience at the Stanford University School of Medicine studying reward-seeking behavior in mice and the neural circuits of depression and addiction. Her brother, Nana, was a gifted high school athlete who died of a heroin overdose after an ankle injury left him hooked on OxyContin. Her suicidal mother is living in her bed. Gifty is determined to discover the scientific basis for the suffering she sees all around her. But even as she turns to the hard sciences to unlock the mystery of her family's loss, she finds herself hungering for her childhood faith and grappling with the evangelical church in which she was raised, whose promise of salvation remains as tantalizing as it is elusive. 

Transcendent Kingdom is a deeply moving portrait of a family of Ghanaian immigrants ravaged by depression and addiction and grief - a novel about faith, science, religion, love. Exquisitely written, emotionally searing, this is an exceptionally powerful follow-up to Gyasi's phenomenal debut.

Transcendent Kingdom: A Novel by Yaa Gyasi

In her highly anticipated second novel, Yaa Gyasi returns with a powerful story about a Ghanaian family's experiences in America, exploring the intersections of faith, science, and grief.

Gifty is a brilliant neuroscience student at Stanford University, studying the brains of mice in an attempt to understand her late brother's schizophrenia. As she delves deeper into her research, she uncovers a link between her brother's illness and their family's history of addiction.

Gifty's parents, who emigrated from Ghana to the United States, are devout Christians who believe that their son's illness is a test of faith. Gifty, however, is more skeptical, and she struggles to reconcile her scientific beliefs with her family's religious beliefs.

As Gifty's research progresses, she begins to question her own sanity. She experiences hallucinations and visions, and she becomes increasingly isolated from her friends and family. Finally, she reaches a breaking point and is forced to confront her past and her demons.

Transcendent Kingdom is a beautifully written and deeply moving novel about the power of love, the nature of faith, and the complexities of grief. Gyasi's writing is lyrical and evocative, and she creates a vivid and unforgettable cast of characters.

This novel is a must-read for fans of literary fiction and anyone interested in exploring the intersections of science, religion, and family.