Friday, March 22, 2013

"All the elements add up to sheer genius." --Cathy

"Kweku, the patriarch of Taiye Selasi's debut novel Ghana Must Go, dies, barefoot, in the opening sentence. Take a deep breath, because reader, you are in for an intense and amazing journey.

Kweku left the bedroom very quietly, not wanting to wake his sleeping wife. A considerate husband, brilliant surgeon, citizen of Ghana. Dead. Beginning with his end, Selasi weaves a brilliant tale. There is the first wife and children abandoned in America years before. A career derailed. His mother and siblings left behind in the small village. Ghana Must Go achieves what the best novels do, bringing to incredible life and depth this intriguing family. As his first family learns of Kweku's death and gathers to go to Africa for the funeral we learn why they have been estranged, angry and very troubled. Fola, Olu, Kehinde, Taiwo and Sadie, Mother and children, each so vivid that they live in your head while the novel unfolds and remain there afterwards. Selasi's extra gift to the reader is the way in which her characters embody her deep, nuanced insider's view of Ghanaian and Nigerian people and politics. All the elements add up to sheer genius."

--Cathy

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