It takes a brave writer to take on a theme as big as evangelical faith versus science, even without adding addiction, grief, immigration and the never-ending quest to belong into the mix. But it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Yaa Gyasi – author of 2016’s bestseller Homegoing, a gripping family saga about the transatlantic slave trade set over seven generations – has done just that with her second novel, Transcendent Kingdom (Viking).

“Family is once again a key theme in Gyasi’s much-anticipated follow-up,” says Stylist’s email content director, Gemma Crisp. “It centres on Gifty, the daughter of Ghanian immigrants who moved to Alabama before she was born, and her struggle to reconcile her now-abandoned childhood faith with her burgeoning career as a neuroscientist. However, it’s Gifty’s professional motivation that provides the most compelling thread of this novel, as she struggles to come to terms with the opioid addiction that ended her older brother’s life when she was 11 and sent her usually stoic mother into crippling bouts of depression. While Gyasi’s second novel doesn’t have the epic narrative that I loved in Homegoing, it is a compelling look at a woman’s struggle to move on from the devastating effects of her family falling apart in front of her eyes.” £14.99, Bookshop.org