Transcendent Kingdom is a novel about a young woman navigating the complexities of belief, family, and identity. Gifty, the main character, is a first-generation American raised in a Ghanaian Christian household. Throughout her life, she tries to make the right choices, guided by her faith and family values. As a child, she spent her time in church, praying and believing in God. However, her view begins to shift as she develops a deep passion for science and pursues a PhD in neuroscience. Her love for science challenges everything she once believed, especially as she watches her brother, once the closest person to her, fall into addiction. His struggle and eventual death deeply affect their family, leading to her mother’s severe depression. Gifty is left trying to make sense of suffering through both faith and science, caught between the two as she searches for understanding and healing.

Gifty’s family migrated from Ghana to Alabama, where her mother’s first priority was finding a church to create a sense of normalcy in a completely new environment. Even though her mother worked constantly to support the family, attending church on Sundays became a non-negotiable routine. Her father, unable to adjust to life in America, eventually returned to Ghana, leaving Gifty and Nana to be raised by their mother alone. For Gifty, faith became a way to stay grounded. She read her Bible regularly and went to church with her mother, saying all she wanted was “to be good.” But everything changed after her brother Nana died from a drug overdose and her mother fell into a deep depression. Collectively, these experiences made Gifty start questioning her faith. As she grew older and became a scientist, her belief in things like miracles and prayer began to fade. Science taught her to search for evidence and logic, which often conflicted with the spiritual teachings she was raised with. Even though she still prays at times, Gifty feels caught between her religious past and her scientific present. She stated, “I don’t believe in God, but I miss Him. That’s what I say when anyone asks me if I’m religious now. I’ve said it so many times that it feels like a truth, even though it isn’t.” This quote shows her inner conflict even as her faith slips away, part of her still craves the comfort it once brought.

Nana was the textbook big brother her first friend, her protector, her hero. He was someone Gifty admired deeply and aspired to be like. While she often felt challenged by the world around her, Nana seemed to move through it with ease. He was physically gifted, socially confident, and, in her eyes, the exception to everything that felt difficult. Although their cultural upbringing didn’t encourage open displays of affection, their bond was strong and their love for each other was clear. When Nana became addicted to opioids after a sports injury, Gifty was devastated. Watching someone she looked up to unravel in such a painful way was heartbreaking. With no one to turn to, she threw herself into her studies as a way to cope. As she says, “I had to know why he did it, why he kept doing it. Why couldn’t he stop even when he knew it was killing him.” Her grief and confusion became the driving force behind her scientific work, as she searched for answers to the pain her family endured.

After experiencing so much loss, Gifty comes to understand mental health not through conversation, but through observation and silence. Her mother’s deep depression after Nana’s death leaves a lasting impact. For weeks, her mother stays in bed, unresponsive, and Gifty is left to care for her in isolation. Without anyone to guide her emotionally, Gifty learns to suppress her feelings. This emotional repression becomes a pattern, and instead of processing her grief, she dives into science, hoping it can provide answers for her family’s suffering. Her work in neuroscience becomes both a purpose and a distraction—a way to intellectualize pain rather than feel it. She even admits her discomfort with vulnerability when she says, “I have never talked to anyone the way people are supposed to talk to therapists, openly and honestly, without the need to charm or deceive.” Gifty is afraid of being emotionally exposed, so she hides behind her research and achievements. Science helps her make sense of the world, but it also becomes a shield against the rawness of her sadness and the memories she struggles to face.In conclusion, Transcendent Kingdom explores how Gifty attempts to balance two powerful forces in her life science and faith. While her religious upbringing once offered comfort and stability, the pain of losing her brother and the mental health struggles within her family pushed her to seek answers in science. Yet, even as she gains knowledge, her emotional wounds remain. The novel shows that while science can explain mechanisms and patterns, it cannot always heal the human spirit. Gifty’s journey is  trying to reconcile what she knows with what she feels is a struggle many face when confronted with grief, loss, and the search for meaning.