Title: Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi
Book Beginnings quote:
Whenever I think of my mother, I picture a queen-sized bed with her lying in it, a practiced stillness filling the room.
Friday56 quote:
Nana was the first miracle, the true miracle, and the glory of his birth cast a long shadow. I was born into the darkness that shadow left behind.
Summary:
Gifty is a fifth-year candidate in neuroscience at Stanford 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 a knee injury left him using pain killers. 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.
Review: Oh man, this book brought out the high school teacher in me. First I thought I'd want to assign this to my Health-class students so we could talk about many aspects about addiction. Then I thought it would be an excellent resource for my Sociology class so we could study the importance of friendship, what it is like being an immigrant in a foreign land, and the importance of community. Oh, and then it would work for a Psychology class to talk about depression and mental resilience. Lastly I thought it would probably be an excellent book club selection especially for my church-oriented club. There is so much about faith and spirituality in it. And since I am retired and no longer teach social sciences, I will see if I can talk my book club into reading it. There is so much to discuss!
Wow, what a story.
My rating: 5 stars
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