The protagonist, Gifty, is working on her PhD in neuroscience, grappling with her relationship to faith, grieving the death of her brother to a drug overdose, and trying to untangle her uneasy relationship with her mother. I read it when it came out in 2020, and I still think about it often. It’s a book that gets under your skin. If you, too, are a major Yaa Gyasi fan and are looking for more books like Transcendent Kingdom to read while waiting for whatever she decides to publish next, these are a great place to start. I’ve chosen novels that grapple with various elements of what Transcendent Kingdom grapples with. You’ll find books about science and work, books about faith, books centering complicated mother-daughter relationships, books about addiction, and books about immigrant families. One thing (among many) that stands out about Transcendent Kingdom is the quality of the prose, which is exacting and precise, but feels effortless to read. Gifty’s voice is singular; I can still hear it echoing in my head. So I’ve chosen books like Transcendent Kingdom in that way, too. Many of these novels are also deeply interior. They feature close POVs that’ll draw you deep into the tumultuous inner lives of their protagonists. After her transcendent (pun obviously intended) debut Homegoing, it was hard to imagine how anything Gyasi wrote next could live up to it. But with Transcendent Kingdom, she proved she has remarkable range. I can’t wait to read whatever she writes next, which I’m sure will be something entirely different. In the meantime, here are nine books like Transcendent Kingdom to tide us all over. Looking for more books like Transcendent Kingdom? Check out our personalized book recommendation service, Tailored Book Recommendations! Our expert bibliologists (aka professional book nerds) can help you find readalikes for just about anything, whether it’s books like Transcendent Kingdom, the Murderbot series, that dragon fantasy you fell in love with when you were 17, or something entirely different. Our bibliologists use their many years of book knowledge (and thousands of pages read) to bring you recommendations for books you might not have heard of, but that you absolutely need in your life.
