You may have to Search all our reviewed books and magazines, click the sign up button below to create a free account.
'Extraordinary' Maaza Mengiste 'Exhilarating' Elif Batuman Selam is the youngest child in a large turbulent family. Even before she is born, her omniscience animates life in a Small Town in 1980s southwestern Ethiopia. Selam and her father listen to the radio in secret as the socialist military junta that recently overthrew the government seizes properties and wages civil war in the North. The Asmelashes, once an enterprising, land-owning family, are ostracized under the new regime. In the Small Town where they live, nosy women convene around coffee ceremonies multiple times a day, the gossip spreading like wildfire. As Selam's mother, the powerful and relentlessly dignified Degitu, grows il...
“An endearing coming-of-age story. . . . Sharp and witty. . . . A wily and operatic novel. . . . Propulsive.” —The Washington Post "The History of a Difficult Child is an extraordinary novel." —Maaza Mengiste, Booker Prize-shortlisted author of The Shadow King “An exhilarating novel by a powerful new writer.” —Elif Batuman, author of Pulitzer-Prize finalist The Idiot and Either/Or A breathtaking, tragicomic debut novel about the indomitable child of a scorned, formerly land-owning family who must grow up in the wake of Ethiopia’s socialist revolution Wisecracking, inquisitive, and bombastic, Selam Asmelash is the youngest child in her large, boisterous family. Even before she...
A “boisterous and high-spirited debut” (Kirkus starred review)“that enthralls the reader through their every twist and turn” (Publishers Weekly starred review), named one of the Most Anticipated Books for Brittle Paper, The Millions, and The Rumpus, penned by a finalist for the AKO Caine PrizeIn her powerful, genre-bending debut story collection, Nana Nkweti's virtuosity is on full display as she mixes deft realism with clever inversions of genre. In the Caine Prize finalist story “It Takes a Village, Some Say,” Nkweti skewers racial prejudice and the practice of international adoption, delivering a sly tale about a teenage girl who leverages her adoptive parents to fast-track her fortunes. In “The Devil Is a Liar,” a pregnant pastor's wife struggles with the collision of western Christianity and her mother's traditional Cameroonian belief system as she worries about her unborn child.In other stories, Nkweti vaults past realism, upending genre expectations in a satirical romp about a jaded PR professional trying to spin a zombie outbreak in West Africa, and in a mermaid tale about a Mami Wata who forgoes her power by remaining faithful to a fisherman she loves.
This is the first complete English translation of Bealu Girma's classic. Originally published in 1983 in Ethiopia, the novel served as a critical account of the Red Star Campaign, the Communist Derg government's attempt at a final comprehensive victory over the secessionist rebellion in Eritrea. A passionate and turbulent story of love and war, Oromay mocked high-level members of Ethiopia's communist regime and criticized the Derg's actions in Eritrea. The criticism contained in this incisive political allegory put Bealu in considerable danger owing to the repressive environment in which it was published. The novel was almost immediately banned after publication. Government officials attempt...
SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2020 A BOOK OF THE YEAR IN THE NEW YORK TIMES, GUARDIAN, ELLE, TIME, SPECTATOR 'DEVASTATING' Marlon James, 'BRILLIANT' Salman Rushdie, 'MAGNIFICENT' Aminatta Forna, 'WONDERFUL' Laila Lalami, 'UNFORGETTABLE' The Times, 'REMARKABLE' New York Times Ethiopia, 1935. With the threat of Mussolini's army looming, recently orphaned Hirut struggles to adapt to her new life as a maid. Her new employer, Kidane, an officer in Emperor Haile Selassie's army, rushes to mobilise his strongest men before the Italians invade. Hirut and the other women long to do more than care for the wounded and bury the dead. When Emperor Haile Selassie goes into exile and Ethiopia quickly loses hope, it is Hirut who offers a plan to maintain morale. She helps disguise a gentle peasant as the emperor and soon becomes his guard, inspiring other women to take up arms. But how could she have predicted her own personal war, still to come, as a prisoner of one of Italy's most vicious officers? The Shadow King is a gorgeously crafted and unputdownable exploration of female power, and what it means to be a woman at war.
'Jennifer Makumbi is a genius storyteller.' Reni Eddo-Lodge An intoxicating mix of Ugandan folklore and modern feminism, from a multi-award-winning author As Kirabo enters her teens, questions begin to gnaw at her – questions which the adults in her life will do anything to ignore. Where is the mother she has never known? And why would she choose to leave her daughter behind? Inquisitive, headstrong, and unwilling to take no for an answer, Kirabo sets out to find the truth for herself. Her search will take her away from the safety of her prosperous Ugandan family, plunging her into a very different world of magic, tradition, and the haunting legend of 'The First Woman'. 'In Jennifer Makumbi, we have a giant of literature living among us.' Peter Kalu, Jhalak Prize Judge A SUNDAY TIMES, OBSERVER, DAILY MAIL, BBC CULTURE & IRISH INDEPENDENT BOOK OF THE YEAR
WINNER OF FC2’S RONALD SUKENICK INNOVATIVE FICTION PRIZE A novel about two teenage lovers who disrupt a World War II internment camp in Arizona Kane Araki and Margaret Morri are not only the names of teenage lovers living in a World War II Japanese relocation camp. Kane Araki is also the name of a man who, mysteriously, sprouts a pair of black raven’s wings overnight. Margaret Morri is the name of the aging healer who treats embarrassing conditions (smelly feet and excessive flatulence). It’s also the name of an eleven-year-old girl who communes with the devil, trading human teeth for divine wishes. In The Book of Kane and Margaret, dozens of Kane Arakis and Margaret Morris populate the Canal and Butte camp divisions in Gila River. Amidst their daily rituals and family dramas, they find ways to stage quiet revolutions against a domestic colonial experience. Some internees slip through barbed wire fences to meet for love affairs. Others attempt to smuggle whiskey, pornography, birds, dogs, horses, and unearthly insects into their family barracks. And another seeks a way to submerge the internment camp in Pacific seawater.
A remarkable and inspiring true story that "stuns with raw beauty" about one woman's resilience, her courageous journey to America, and her family's lost way of life. Winner of the 2022 Gold Nautilus Award, Multicultural & Indigenous Category Born in Somalia, a spare daughter in a large family, Shugri Said Salh was sent at age six to live with her nomadic grandmother in the desert. The last of her family to learn this once-common way of life, Salh found herself chasing warthogs, climbing termite hills, herding goats, and moving constantly in search of water and grazing lands with her nomadic family. For Salh, though the desert was a harsh place threatened by drought, predators, and enemy cla...
Unbury our Dead With Song is a novel about four talented Ethiopian musicians - The Diva, The Corporal, the Taliban Man and Miriam, who are competing to see who can sing the best Tizita (popularly referred to as Ethiopian blues). Taking place in an illegal boxing hall in Nairobi, Kenya, the competition is covered by a US educated Kenyan journalist, John Thandi Manfredi, who writes for a popular tabloid, The National Inquisitor. He follows the musicians back to Ethiopia in order to learn more about the Tizita and their lives. As he learns more about the Tizita and the multiple meanings of beauty, he uncovers that behind each of the musicians, there are layered lives and secrets. A love letter to African music, beauty and imagination.
A novel about sibling love, family secrets, birds, and coming home. Sometimes you need to be lost before you can find your way home... What if the person you thought you'd lost forever walked back into your life?On a sunny morning in March 1987, four-year-old Stephen Nelson welcomes his new baby sister, Emily. Holding her for the first time, he vows to love and protect her, and to keep her safe forever. Thirty years later, the two have lost touch and Stephen is homeless.Emily, however, has never given up hope of finding her brother again, and when he arrives at the council office where she works, her wish comes true. But they say you should be careful what you wish for - and perhaps they're ...