The Power of Family

The novel’s plot, the individual journeys of its many central characters, its various images and themes are all defined, one way or another, by the central idea of the enduring power of family.

Chapter by chapter, the story moves from generation to generation down a pair of diverging genetic and narrative lines, starting with the same person (Maame) and ending with the reunion of her descendants (Marjorie and Marcus, who do not know that is what they are). Each chapter focuses on the child of the protagonist of the chapter preceding it in its particular narrative line; each chapter and child explores a different aspect of the family’s history; and each chapter and child is connected to those that have gone before, genetically, metaphorically, and narratively. As a result, there is a clear sense, in both theme and story, that family...