Selasi beautifully captures the varied nature of human coping mechanisms in the face of defeat and despair – keep your Kleenex on-hand. Her delicate and detailed sensitivity into how each member of the Sai family handles the oh-so sudden departure of Kweku Sai so differently will resonate with any reader who’s ever found themselves in the unfortunate position of coping with the fall-out from betrayal and desertion. Selasi does an amazing job of providing varying insight into each of the five characters ‘left behind’ so to speak. “Ghana Must Go” is a tale that tackles so many topics the obvious story-line revolves around the theme of abandonment.

However, like the devoted book-club member that I am I hunkered down and gave it my undivided attention. The phrase ‘how predictable’ may have even crossed my mind. I actually groaned out loud and may have rolled an eyeball or two when I saw that it had been selected.

So yes, I’m ashamed to admit that the only reason I came to read this book this year was because it was the selected book choice for my monthly book-club session. Without getting into the semantics of which-books-better-than-which debate, let me just state for the record that “Ghana Must Go” may have initially been the underdog of the two debutante novels poised to make their grand entrance into the literary world, but in my humble opinion, was the book that walked away with the crown…bouquet…and more than half the audience. Taiye Selasi honestly drew the short straw when it came to the release date of her debut novel, but I believe she ultimately had the last laugh…one of those whooping, belly laughs that gets everyone going even though they have no idea why. Well because the ill-timed debut of this awesome book coincided with that of the over publicised and highly anticipated “Americanah” of the Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie realm. I’m quite embarrassed as to my initial nonchalance when it came to reading “Ghana Must Go”, but I’m going to blame Twitter and general mass media for this.

Ghana must go book review