Ghana Must Go - Hardcover

Selasi, Taiye

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0670065706 ISBN 13: 9780670065707

Publisher: Hamish Hamilton, 2013

Synopsis

Introducing a powerful new novelist whose evocation of an unforgettable African family is testament to the transformative power of unconditional love

Kwaku Sai is dead. A renowned surgeon and failed husband, he succumbs suddenly at dawn outside the home he shares in Ghana with his second wife. The news of Kwaku’s death sends a ripple around the world, bringing together the family he abandoned years before. Ghana Must Go is their story.

Electric, exhilarating, beautifully crafted, Ghana Must Go follows the Sais’ journey, moving with great elegance through time and place to share the truths hidden and lies told, the crimes committed in the name of love. In the wake of Kwaku’s death, the family gathers in Ghana at the home of their mother, Fola. The eldest son and his new wife; the mysterious, beautiful twins; their baby sister, now a young woman—all come together for the first time in years, each carrying secrets of his own. What is revealed in their reunion is the story of how they came apart.

But the horrible fragility of the world they have built soon becomes clear, and Kwaku’s leaving begets a series of betrayals that none of them could have imagined. Splintered, alone, each navigates his pain, believing that what has been lost can never be recovered—until, in Ghana, a new way forward, a new family, begins to emerge.

Ghana Must Go is at once a portrait of a family and an exploration of the importance of where we come from and our obligations to one another. In a sweeping narrative that takes us from West Africa to New England to London, Ghana Must Go teaches us that the stories we share with one another can build a new future.

About this title

About the Author

Taiye Selasi was born in London and raised in Massachusetts. She holds a B.A. in American studies from Yale and an M.Phil. in international relations from Oxford. “The Sex Lives of African Girls” (Granta, 2011), Selasi’s fiction debut, will appear in The Best American Short Stories 2012. She lives in Rome.

Review

“Taiye Selasi is a totally new and near perfect voice that spans continents and social stratum as effortlessly as the insertion of an ellipsis or a dash. With mesmerizing craftsmanship and massive imagination she 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. Taiye Selasi’s Ghana Must Go is a big novel, elemental, meditative, and mesmerizing; and when one adds the words 'first novel', we speak about the beginning of an amazing career and a very promising life in letters.” - Sapphire, author of Precious

"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

“[Selasi] writes elegantly about the ways people grow apart— husbands and wives, brothers and sisters, parents and kids.” - Entertainment Weekly

"One of 2013's must read novels." - Flare

“A stunning debut, as exceptional as the deserving hype that preceded it, which included the news that Toni Morrison and Salman Rushdie are fans.” - Toronto Star

“Selasi’s strengths as an author are in the microscopic image – a dewdrop, a flower – and the way she can pull the camera back on a specific moment to propel the story. . . but the novel spans decades, flashing expertly through time, and Selasi handles this challenge masterfully. . . An emotionally insightful story that updates the typical African immigrant narrative and refuses to simplify, moralize or exoticize a complicated history.” - Globe and Mail

About this edition

• Publisher: Hamish Hamilton
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 0670065706
• ISBN 13: 9780670065707
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 336