Are science and faith incompatible? That is the underlying question in Gyasi’s novel The Transcendent Kingdom, but she explores it as if using a kaleidoscope, twisting the picture so that new images and understandings emerge and we can see things from a new perspective. Although this is a simple story, there is complexity and deep insight to Gyasi’s exploration of this important question.

Giffy is a PhD candidate in neuroscience at Stanford University’s School of Medicine. Her research is on reward-seeking behavior in mice and the neural circuits of depression and addiction. Her choice of this research topic is not random. Her brother a high school basketball star, became addicted to OxyContin after an ankle injury and ended up dying from an overdose of heroin.

Giffy’s mother, an immigrant from Ghanna, became suicidal after the loss of her son, and for a few months Giffy was sent back to Ghanna to live with her aunt while her mother recovered. When Giffy came back, her mother was mostly functional, but something deep within her had changed and she often took to her bed, unable to move or even speak.

Giffy’s desire to figure out the science behind addiction and depression come from a deep desire to understand what happened to the people she loves and how to help them. Now in her sixth year of her program she is almost ready to write her final paper and complete her PhD program, but she is procrastinating, uncertain whether the scientific results that she has discovered are enough to answer the question she posed. Then she gets a call from the pastor in her hometown in Alabama. Her mother is not doing well, and Giffy invites her mother to come and stay with her. 

With the arrival of her mother, Giffy is flooded with memories of her upbringing in Alabama, the role of her evangelical pentecostal church in their lives and the ways that the church both helped and failed her family during difficult times. As Giffy begins writing the paper summarizing the results of her experiments, she realizes that she still longs for the certainty and comfort of her childhood faith. As Giffy struggles to reach out to her mother and write her paper, she tries to work out for herself where faith and science can intersect.  

Both tender and emotionally searing, this book does not spare the reader from the horrific effects of addiction or the devastation of severe depression on family members.  Yet it is in that honesty that we see the power of Giffy’s determination and faith. Gaysi is a gifted writer, her characters are memorable and touching and she has something deeply meaningful to say.

  Brenda’s Rating: ***** (5 Out of 5 Stars)

Recommend this book to: Marian, Lauren Sharon, Keith and Ken

Book Study Worthy? Yes

Read in ebook format.