Today show co-host Jenna Bush Hager has selected Yaa Gyasi’s Transcendent Kingdom as the latest pick for her popular book club.
“I am so excited about this month’s pick,” Hager said. “Y’all, I’ve been waiting to announce this since I first read it in January.”
Gyasi’s novel, her second after the critically acclaimed Homegoing, follows a Ghanaian family who have immigrated to the American South and are dealing with the loss of a loved one to a drug overdose. In a starred review, a Kirkus critic called it “a quietly poignant story.”
“This story made me think a lot about where we look for answers and how to make sense of the senseless tragedies,” Hager said. “This book tackles the themes of mental health and race and faith, and I think we will have some awesome conversations.”
Gyasi’s Homegoing was one of the most talked-about books of 2016. Published when she was 26, the novel won the PEN/Hemingway Award and the National Book Critics Circle’s John Leonard Prize.
Hager said she’s been a fan of Gyasi’s since Homegoing.
“I read it in one sitting with a baby sleeping next to me and a cat on the other side,” Hager recalled.
Hager launched her book club in March of 2019. Previous books she’s chosen have included Nicole Dennis-Benn’s Patsy, Kevin Wilson’s Nothing to See Here, and Lily King’s Writers and Lovers.
Michael Schaub is a Texas-based journalist and regular contributor to NPR.
