Yaa Gyasi cites reading Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison as an important moment in her life where she learned she, as a black woman, could write well as a career. Consider books by Morrison such as Beloved or The Bluest Eye.
Consider The Known World by Edward P. Jones, set in antebellum Virginia and examining slavery. Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie follows a Nigerian woman who comes to the United States.
The Heart of Darkness details an African nation in the 19th century from a white point of view and could be used as comparison.
Homegoing bears structural similarity to Cloud Atlas, which also focuses on a different person in a subsequent generation for each chapter.
