Ghana Must Go

Nell Freudenberger, The New York Times Book Review:
“Selasi’s ambition—to show her readers not “Africa” but one African family, authors of their own achievements and failures—is one that can be applauded no matter what accent you give the word.”

The Wall Street Journal:
“Irresistible from the first line—’Kweku dies barefoot on a Sunday before sunrise, his slippers by the doorway to the bedroom like dogs’—this bright, rhapsodic debut stood out in the thriving field of fiction about the African diaspora.”

The Economist:
“Ghana Must Go comes with a bagload of prepublication praise. For once, the brouhaha is well deserved. Ms. Selasi has an eye for the perfect detail: a baby’s toenails ‘like dewdrops’, a woman sleeps ‘like a cocoyam. A thing without senses… unplugged from the world.’ As a writer she has a keen sense of the baggage of childhood pain and an unforgettable voice on the page. Miss out on Ghana Must Go and you will miss one of the best new novels of the season.”

The Wall Street Journal:
“Buoyant… a joy… Rapturous.”

Entertainment Weekly:
“[Selasi] writes elegantly about the ways people grow apart — husbands and wives, brothers and sisters, parents and kids.”

Elle magazine:
“In Ghana Must Go, Selasi drives the six characters skillfully through past and present, unearthing old betrayals and unexplained grievances at a delicious pace. By the time the surviving five convene at a funeral in Ghana, we are invested in their reconciliation—which is both realistically shaky and dramatically satisfying… Narrative gold.”

The Daily Beast:
“Selasi’s prose… is a rewarding mix of soulful conjuring and intelligent introspection, and points to a bright future.”

Booklist:
“Powerful… A finely crafted yarn that seamlessly weaves the past and present, Selasi’s moving debut expertly limns the way the bonds of family endure even when they are tested and strained.”

Publishers Weekly (starred review):
“Gorgeous. Reminiscent of Jhumpa Lahiri but with even greater warmth and vibrancy, Selasi’s novel, driven by her eloquent prose, tells the powerful story of a family discovering that what once held them together could make them whole again.”

Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love:
“Taiye Selasi is a young writer of staggering gifts and extraordinary sensitivity. Ghana Must Go seems to contain the entire world, and I shall never forget it.”

Sapphire, author of The Kid and Push:
“Taiye Selasi is a totally new and near perfect voice that spans continents and social strata as effortlessly as the insertion of an ellipsis or a dash. With mesmerizing craftsmanship and massive imagination she takes the reader on an unforgettable journey across continents and most importantly deeply into the lives of the people whom she writes about. She de-‘exoticizes’ whole populations and demographics and brings them firmly into the readers view as complicated and complex human beings. Taiye Selasi’s Ghana Must Go is a big novel, elemental, meditative, and mesmerizing; and when one adds the words ‘first novel,’ we speak about the beginning of an amazing career and a very promising life in letters.”

Teju Cole, author of Open City:
“Ghana Must Go is both a fast moving story of one family’s fortunes and an ecstatic exploration of the inner lives of its members. With her perfectly-pitched prose and flawless technique, Selasi does more than merely renew our sense of the African novel: she renews our sense of the novel, period. An astonishing debut.”