Maaza Mengiste

This is a well-written and gripping book if read as historical FICTION; it's a well-written and frightening book when read as HISTORICAL fiction. It is amazing how quickly the machinery of fascism and totalitarianism can get set up by people ostensibly working in the interest of the "people". Africa usually shakes free of the shackles of colonial powers only to fall prey to dictators backed by those powers. But Ethiopia was a sovereign nation ruled by an emperor whose lineage extended back show more into antiquity, so one could hope for so much more. Alas, like many kings and emperors, his neglect of the common people while living a life of luxury led to the coup that the cold war powers were only to glad to help make even more rapacious and violent.
Against this backdrop we get the gripping story of a family and country torn apart by the brutality of the Derg. Mengiste does a brilliant job of showing the different paths even members of the same family can take through a crisis of this magnitude and how there are many different types of courage and of resistance. When I read books like this, I always wonder, what would I do? How would that change based on when in my life it occurred? How did something like this happen without my knowledge? I was 13 when the Derg took power in the '70s. As an American, I remember Vietnam from that era, of course. I remember the Iranian Revolution. I remember Idi Amin and Apartheid. But why do I have this blank spot in my knowledge? Is it because no Americans or American interests were threatened? No cute elephants killed? Glad to fill in this missing knowledge even though it is sobering and gruesome to do so, and makes me grieve even more for Africa. I'll continue to fill in the holes of my knowledge of Africa as I find literature from each country and culture. I would heartily recommend Megiste for Ethiopia. show less

This book wove together so many interests of mine that I found it mesmerizing to read. It takes place in Ethiopia from the 1930s on. I count among friends many people from Ethiopia so anytime I can learn more about their country I am interested. In the 1930s Italy, under Mussolini, attempted to conquer Ethiopia. So the subjects of fascism and colonial ambition form a large part of the story. One of the Italian soldiers who comes to Ethiopia brings a camera with him and he is often tasked show more with taking photographs of the captured Ethiopians. Although I'm not a great photographer I am always interested in what a good photographer can capture. That soldier happened to be Jewish so there is the whole question of the treatment of Jews by the Nazis that raises its ugly head. The most intriguing facet of the story and the whole reason Mengiste wrote the book is the integral part the Ethiopian women took in the resistance.

There are four women who play major roles in this book. Hirut was still a young girl when the Italians invaded. She was a servant in the household of Aster and Kidane, having been taken in by Kidane when her parents died. Also in the household is a woman known only as "the cook" who, rather shockingly, was a slave. Aster, Kidane's wife, did not want to be married. She and the cook tried to run away together just before the wedding ceremony but were caught and brought back. Aster bore a son to Kidane but he died in childhood which tragedy has deeply scarred both parents. The other main woman has many names: Fifi, Ferres, etc and she has many personas to go with those names. She has been a prostitute and she comes to the Italian camp to be the mistress of the commander. But she is also a spy who passes on much valuable information to the resistance fighters. Each of these women play an important role in the Ethiopian army.

It is Hirut who comes up with the observation that a musician who has joined the resistance looks just like Haile Selassie. Minim becomes the Shadow King and rallies the Ethiopians when the real Selassie has fled the country. Inspired by the faux Selassie the Ethiopians fight on against the Italians who eventually leave Ethiopia to return to the war in Europe.

The book is written with many interruptions to the narrative. There are descriptions of photographs, short biographies of tangential characters, interludes about what Selassie is doing and thinking, and a sort of Greek chorus to give overviews. With a less skilled writer this might make the book choppy but each time one of these sequences occurred I read them avidly. show less

This is the story of a family on the eve of the Ethiopian revolution that would topple the centuries old monarchy. Hailu is a famous doctor, who is helpless before his wife's congenital heart failure. His older son, Yonas, is in his thirties and a professor of history, religious, with a wife and young daughter. The younger son, Dawit, is a college student, idealistic and intent on being part of the change happening around him, rebelling against his father's attempts to protect him. What show more happens to them during the years 1974-77 is heartbreaking and absorbing and a beautiful look at family relationships during a tumultuous period of political upheaval.

Maaza Mengiste was born in Addis Ababa and now lives in the United States. She writes with a maturity that belies this is her first novel. The language is such that I reread passages just to enjoy the language. It is a difficult novel to read, however, because of the atrocities that happened in those years. Although the setting is historical, and I know nothing about Ethiopian history, I had no trouble following the plot because this is not a novel about the macro, but the micro, a family. That said, I think the novel is well-researched, given the bibliography at the end. I very much look forward to reading her later novel, The Shadow King. show less

[[Mengiste]]'s latest novel, [The Shadow King], is one that I found on the recently released long list for the Booker Prize. It caught my eye as a novel written by an African woman about the unsung women warriors that fought for Ethiopia against the Italian invasion in the 1930s.

Mengiste is a masterful writer. She develops strong, complex, flawed characters on both sides, the Ethiopians and the Italians. And her Ethiopian female characters are complex as well - they are certainly not show more perfect role models or heroines. But they are real and strong and human. They have complex relationships with each other, that are realistic instead of glorifying.

I appreciated this book and learning a little bit about this time period, but, as expected, reading about war is brutal and violent. A lot of this book was very uncomfortable to read and I wouldn't describe as pleasant. This book is very deserving of the critical claim it is receiving, but also is a challenging read. However, as the author states, it's so important to give these women a voice and acknowledge their contributions.

Original publication date: 2020
Author’s nationality: Ethiopian
Original language: English
Length: 428 pages
Rating: 3.5 stars
Format/where I acquired the book: library hardback
Why I read this: booker list, description grabbed my attention show less