This was one of those books where I was grateful for having scanned a few reviews before diving in. I saw one from Roxane Gay saying that the first third of the book is 'a damn mess' (her words 😂) but that the rest is a masterpiece. So when I found myself struggling to get through the first 80 pages or so of Ghana Must Go, I just remembered Roxane's words and persevered. In the end, I'm glad I did because this book does get into its stride once we leave Kweku behind.

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Kweku's death sets the novel in motion. After an unfair dismissal at the hospital where he worked as a surgeon, Kweku abandons his family of six, flees the US back to Ghanawhere he settles and, at the start of the book, succumbs to a heart attack on his lawn. The 80 pages describing this even, flashing back and forth from past to present are tiresome and repetitive. But once we get past that, you're properly settled into Selasi's rhythm and the story of the family as a whole begins to unfold.

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One by one, we see how Kweku's departure affected each of his four children and wife. Once a family unit, after their father left for Ghana and they all began to grow up, they were flung out from one another. It's only the news of their father's death which brings them back together, back to old tensions and secrets long buried. The four children fly to Ghana, where their Nigerian mother had, very abruptly, set up a home on her own not long before Kweku's death. I will always find it endlessly fascinating to read about complex family dynamics. I especially loved Taiwo and Kehinde's relationship, the twins. But I wasn't expecting the dark turn their storyline took, I was reading in bed one night utterly horrified.

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This is one for lovers of character-driven novels filled with poetic language, exploring themes of family, loss, immigration, class and the feeling of belonging.