Quote by Yaa Gyasi: “We believe the things we need to believe to keep going.”

Human beings aren't always rational — we hold on to beliefs, stories, and hopes not because they're provably true, but because they help us survive and move forward. This isn't a criticism; it's an acknowledgment of how necessary meaning-making is to human life.

Gyasi published Homegoing in 2016, a year marked by global political upheaval including Brexit and the US presidential election. Conversations about the long shadows of colonialism and slavery were reaching new intensity in both policy debates and cultural discourse.

Ghanaian-American novelist whose debut novel Homegoing (2016) traced the consequences of the Atlantic slave trade across eight generations of two Ghanaian family lines. The novel won the National Book Critics Circle's John Leonard Prize and the PEN/Hemingway Award, making her one of the most celebrated debut novelists of the decade.