Even when an unspeakable incident changes things between Taiwo and Kehinde forever, sending both into a tailspin and upsetting the bond they share. The twins have such a commanding hold on the story that the reader cannot turn away from them. Perhaps that is why what happens to Taiwo, the beautiful but adrift sister, and Kehinde, the talented but troubled brother, is so emotionally compelling. Selasi is a twin herself and knows the formidable connection between twins. Sadie, the baby, makes a foolish and career-ending move.īut it is the story of the twins, the “ibeji,” that has the most impact in Ghana Must Go. Olu enters the medical field and falls in love with a classmate, yet something holds him back. Kweku remarries and builds his dream home, often yearning for Fola, who, after battling back from the depths of despair, moves to Ghana. To read this engrossing tale is to get entangled in family secrets, lies, and deceit, yet no one can turn away from Selasi’s intoxicating prose.Īfter Kweku leaves for Ghana, the family attempts to regain its balance. Selasi charts this course with eloquence and ingenuity. His departure left a gaping hole in the familial structure and set off an unfortunate chain of events that disrupted their whole lives. Each character mourns Kweku and thinks back to an earlier, more idyllic time when they were all a unit.īut that was before Kweku walked away from his family years previously after losing his job. He leaves behind many who mourn his passing: Folasade, his estranged wife Olu, his eldest son the twins, Taiwo and Kehinde and Sadie, his youngest daughter.

Kweku Sai, “an exceptional surgeon” and “prodigal prodigy,” dies from an “unexceptional heart attack” in Ghana, his homeland, at the age of 57. Selasi underscores the importance of mending their rift it’s now or never for the Sai family. Together, the remaining family members face the past, in all its ugliness, to generate healing.

In Selasi’s tale, the patriarch’s passing leads to a kind of reckoning.

The death of Kweku Sai, the afore-mentioned patriarch, brings his relations together again to air grievances and lick old wounds.

The Sai clan was already splintered prior to the father’s passing. Usually, the death of a patriarch signals a family’s collapse, but that is not the case in Ghana Must Go. These seemingly trivial and innocuous moments carry profound meaning in Ghana Must Go, Taiye Selasi’s searing, significant, and intricately carved novel. Ghana Must Go by Taiye Selasi (Penguin Press 336 pages $25.95).Ī pair of slippers.

Ghana must go book review