Ghana Must Go follows the lives of the members of the Sai family, tracing their losses, looking at what has shattered them and what is gathering them together again. It’s a story of familial love, and how divided individuals find their way back to each other. Piercing and poignant, the novel moves in circles, going deeper with each revolution into the hearts of the family members until understanding and grace become possible.
Kweku Sai, Ghanaian, top surgeon at Boston’s Beth Israel Hospital, is a failed father and husband, now back in Ghana and married to a very young local nurse. His heart attack at age 57 is the catalyst for his family’s movement back towards Accra, towards each other. His wife, Fola, Nigerian, beautiful, gave up a promising career to care for her children, nurture them, and yet she too has failed at that. Olu, the eldest, has followed in his father’s footsteps and become a doctor. Boy/girl twins Kehinde and Taiwo are strikingly beautiful and it changes how everyone around them reacts to them. Their bond is deep but has also been broken, by circumstances and then by later choices. Kehinde, whose art is becoming internationally known, paints his sister as muse.
The youngest, Sadie, born worrying early and several years younger than the twins, has always felt like an outsider, even though she and her mother have a very close relationship. She struggles with self-esteem, plain in a family of beautiful women, unsure of what to do with her life.
Ghana Must Go moves seamlessly back and forth in time and from person to person, taking the reader deep into the hearts and minds of the various characters. It deals with what immigration means even to the successful, with the concept of leaving one’s origins far behind and the cost that loss can carry. It looks at the far-reaching consequences of abandonment.
Taiye Selasi is a talented writer, and definitely someone to watch. Her descriptions of small details can bring a scene to life. However, at times she moved into almost stream-of-consciousness. Action slowed down or become non-existent. Some people will like these parts; some will be bored by them. Overall, I found it worth reading. Ghana Must Go is an unusual, beautiful book.