A book that will make you laugh out loud and bring tears to your eyes

It’s crazy how different Yaa Gyasi’s novels are, and yet they are both so good. I think Gyasi’s Homegoing gets a lot of love, and rightly so, but Transcendent Kingdom is one of my favorite books ever. This novel is an honest and heartbreaking exploration of grief, loss, and how the loss of a person can tear a family (and individuals) apart. It’s a reflection on religion and its relationship to science, community, culture, the grieving process, and more. It’s a coming-of-age story. Basically, it’s everything.

This novel is about Gifty, a graduate student studying neuroscience at Stanford School of Medicine. Hoping to understand the world she lives in and the horrible things she has experienced in her own life, Gifty investigates the science behind depression and addiction. Her brother died of a heroin overdose after a sports injury left him addicted to OxyContin. Since her brother’s death, Gifty’s mother has fallen into a deep depression and can barely get out of bed. It’s difficult to find meaning in a world where so many horrible things are constantly happening and there is so much sadness, but Gifty searches.

Although Gifty is a scientifically inclined person, she grew up in a religious home. Religion has always been an important part of her family’s life. As Ghanaian immigrants living in the American South, Gifty’s family found community in an evangelical church. Gifty has experienced firsthand both the warmth and alienation that one can experience as part of a strict religious community. Church still feels like an important part of her life, but neither church nor science seem to provide all the answers.

The search for meaning and order in a world that can seem so chaotic – especially after immense, unfathomable loss – is something I understand on a very personal level. I was completely blown away by how accurately this novel expresses the pain and confusion of grief that never really leaves you. In my copy of this novel, there are pages that are crumpled and permanently stained with tears. That’s how much I cried at parts of this book.

But as devastating as this story was, I also felt like I had time to breathe. There were moments of lightness in Gifty’s journey. Moments where I laughed out loud. Moments where I found hope. Books about grief are so hard, but also so important because each of us will experience loss in our lives. Not just once, but many times. This book absolutely captured that experience on every level.