This book is set in Ethiopia during a military revolution. This is the story of Hailu, a doctor and his family: his wife Selam who is deadly ill at hospital, his son Yonas who is married to Sarah and has a little daughter, and finally his young son Dawit who is a rebel and contradicts everything his father says.
At the beggining of the novel, we are introduced to the problematics of the family but soon History gets in the way. A monarchy is crumbling down as it fights a famine in the north of the country. Power is taken by the army, which mercilessly persecutes its enemies. Among them are the students who disappear and whose bodies are left in the middle of the streets as a warning for the rest of the population.
Each member of Hailu's family become involved in the resistance against the bloody regime in different ways. It is now that we see cruelty knocking at their door,
Maaza Mengiste's use of language is powerful and incisive, the fear people feel is tangible in the silences between them, the mothers looking for their children's bodies in the streets, the kids endangering their lives for freedom.
mail: ana.ovejero@gmail.com
instagram:ananbooks
Ana Ovejero
mail: ana.ovejero@gmail.com
instagram:ananbooks
