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Yaa Gyasi manages to weave a cohesive and incredibly compelling story that weaves through 300 years and 8 generations of history on both sides of the Atlantic. Spurred on by the Cape Coast Castle where Ghanian women lived upstairs with their white husbands while Ghanian slaves are stacked like cordwood in the dungeons below, Gyasi tells the story of slavery and being black in America without becoming didactic or preachy. And she does it in 300 pages with each chapter introducing us to a completely new character down the split generational lines. Absolutely incredible feat of debut writing that rarely stumbles and mostly shines.