If you liked
Books like Homegoing
by Yaa Gyasi
Homegoing is Yaa Gyasi's debut: seven generations of two half-sister bloodlines, one in Ghana and one in America, across two hundred fifty years and fourteen chapters. The one-chapter-per-generation construction is the structural masterstroke. If you finished it and needed another book in the same register, these are our picks.
The shortlist
What to read next
Pachinkoby Min Jin Lee
“Pachinko by Min Jin Lee 2017 review. Four generations of a Korean family in twentieth-century Japan, beginning with Sunja's pregnancy by a married Korean gangster in 1933 Busan. The Apple TV+ adaptation source and one of the canonical contemporary Korean-American literary novels.”
Transcendent Kingdomby Yaa Gyasi
“Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi 2020 review. A Stanford neuroscience graduate student runs reward-circuit experiments on mice while her Ghanaian-born mother lives in her apartment. Gyasi's second novel after Homegoing.”
The Underground Railroadby Colson Whitehead
“The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead 2016 review. Cora, a slave on a Georgia plantation, escapes north via an actual underground railroad, a literalized version of the metaphor. Pulitzer Prize 2017 and the National Book Award winner that defined the contemporary Black literary moment.”
Belovedby Toni Morrison
“Beloved by Toni Morrison 1987 review. Sethe, a former slave living in Reconstruction-era Ohio, is haunted by the daughter she killed to save from slavery. Pulitzer Prize 1988 and one of the canonical American novels of the late twentieth century.”
Song of Solomonby Toni Morrison
“Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison 1977 review. Macon "Milkman" Dead III, born into a comfortable Black family in 1930s Michigan, travels south to discover his ancestral history. Morrison's third novel and one of her two unquestioned masterpieces alongside Beloved.”
On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeousby Ocean Vuong
“On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong 2019 review. A young Vietnamese-American man writes a letter to his illiterate mother about his Hartford childhood and the OxyContin crisis that takes his first love. Vuong's debut novel.”
FAQ
Common questions about Homegoing read-alikes
- What is the closest match for Homegoing?
- Pachinko. Both contemporary American multi-generational diaspora novels carrying one family across the twentieth century, both written by writers who came to the diaspora subject through personal family history. The Korean-and-Japanese setting of Pachinko and the Ghana-and-America setting of Homegoing produce different specific textures but the structural ambition is identical.
- I want more Yaa Gyasi.
- Transcendent Kingdom (2020, reviewed here) is Gyasi's second novel — completely different structurally, set in present-day Stanford and Huntsville. Both novels are essential.
- I want another novel about transatlantic slavery and its aftermath.
- Beloved (Toni Morrison) and The Underground Railroad (Colson Whitehead) are the canonical contemporary picks. Song of Solomon does adjacent work in a more mythic register.
- I want another multi-generational diaspora novel.
- On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous (Ocean Vuong on Vietnamese-American intergenerational inheritance). Pachinko (Min Jin Lee on Korean-Japanese diaspora). North Woods (Daniel Mason's structurally adjacent project across three centuries of one place).
The original