Yet, science alone does not fulfill Gifty, and throughout the novel she finds her answers in unconventional means. Through her scientific doctoral work, Gifty seeks out answers concerning the mental health of her mother, her brother's addiction, and her relationship with God. Gifty’s childhood turned her into a colder and detached person, which she later transforms into curiosity and experimentation. The dimensionality of Gifty’s perspectives make her character so incredibly convincing that it's hard to believe that this is a novel to begin with. Gifty’s childhood allows Gyasi to project deeply philosophical reflections upon her character. These stories are often paired with her childhood journal entries that bridge her present to her past, revealing the trip to Ghana when her mother first fell into catatonic depression and the day Gifty was saved in church. The story oscillates between anecdotes of Gifty’s life leading up to her undergraduate years and her current studies.
This novel crafts a raw analysis of religion, mental illness, and addiction through the lens of a uniquely authentic character. The novel follows Gifty’s efforts to coax her mother out of a depressive episode as she completes the final year of her doctoral program.
Yaa Gyasi’s second novel, “Transcendent Kingdom,” is an intimate look into the life of Gifty, a Ghanian-American neuroscience doctoral student at Stanford.
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