Yaa Gyasi's Transcendent Kingdom was initially published in 2020 by publisher Alfred A. Knopf. The novel follows a 28-year-old PhD candidate at Stanford University named Gifty. Though Gifty is an intelligent woman with a tremendous future ahead of her, she is deeply depressed.
One day, during one of Gifty's neuroscience experiments on lab mice for research, Gifty is informed by her mother that she is not feeling well. Her mother, Gifty recounts, has dealt with depression for as long as Gifty can remember. Gifty recalls one instance in particular, when Gifty was 11. Because of her mother's illness, Gifty has her mother transported to her in California so that Gifty can take care of her mother. Gifty has adopted the role of caretaker in the family, even though her mother did not initially want her. The novel then explores Gifty's past, Gifty's relationship with her family and with religion, and perhaps most significantly, Gifty's complicated relationship with her mother.
When released, Transcendent Kingdom was critically lauded. The novel was shortlisted for the 2021 Women's Prize for Fiction, longlisted for the 2021 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction, and longlisted for the 2020 Prix Médicis étranger prize. Similarly, The Washington Post called the novel "a book of blazing brilliance."
