Reading Is In Style: Ghana Must Go

In 2005, I read an essay by Taiye Selasi. In this essay she coined the now very popular term afropolitan. I found so many pieces of myself in that essay and so much of what I was feeling that I quickly forwarded it to cousins and friends who would also get it. I was 17 years old, trying to figure out my identity and the term afropolitan captured it so well. The essay is called Bye-Bye BarBar if you are interested. 

Anyway, a little bit about Taiye. She was born in London to a Nigerian mother and Ghanian father. She spent her formative years in the United States and currently lives in Rome. Talk about a global citizen. Yale and Oxford educated, former hedge-fund employee and now blessing us with more of her writing. Did I mention that she has a very real relationship with THE Toni Morrison. Yes, dope. I spent a lot of time on youtube listening to her interviews and she has a very charming personality. I'd love to meet her one day. I even bought the book, I'll let you know how it goes.

The synopsis:

Kwaku Sai is dead. A renowned surgeon and failed husband, he succumbs suddenly at dawn outside the home he shares in Ghana with his second wife. The news of Kwaku's death sends a ripple around the world, bringing together the family he abandoned years before. Ghana Must Go is their story. 

Electric, exhilarating, beautifully crafted, Ghana Must Go follows the Sais' journey, moving with great elegance through time and place to share the truths hidden and lies told; the crimes committed in the name of love. In the wake of Kwaku's death, the family gathers in Ghana, at their mother, Fola's, new home. The eldest son and his new wife; the mysterious, beautiful twins; their baby sister, now a young woman—all come together for the first time in years, each carrying secrets of his own. What is revealed in their coming together is the story of how they came apart.

But the horrible fragility of the world they have built soon becomes clear, and Kwaku's leaving begets a series of betrayals that none of them could have imagined. Splintered, alone, each navigates his pain, believing that what has been lost can never be recovered—until, in Ghana, a new way forward, a new family, begins to emerge.