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Description
"A brilliant novel, lyrically lifting history towards myth. It's also compulsively readable. I devoured it in two days." -- Salman Rushdie. With the threat of Mussolini's army looming, recently orphaned Hirut struggles to adapt to her new life as a maid to Kidane and his wife Aster. Kidane, an officer in Emperor Haile Selassie's army, rushes to mobilize his strongest men before the Italians invade. His initial kindness to Hirut shifts into cruelty when she resists his advances, and Hirut finds herself tumbling into a new world of thefts and violations, of betrayals and rage. As the war begins in earnest, the Emperor goes into exile and Ethiopia quickly loses hope. Hirut helps disguise a gentle peasant as the emperor and soon becomes his guard, inspiring other women to take up arms against the Italians. -- adapted from jacket… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member kcshankd
Indiespensable lives up to its name, again. I am so glad I read this, even if the story was so bleak. I kept coming back, and was racing by the end. Well told.
LibraryThing member AnnieMod
It is 1974 and the long reign of Haile Selassie in Ethiopia is about to end. That prompts an old man to try to find a woman he knew almost 40 years earlier and to try to recover an old box so they meet for the first time since the pre-WWII years. But this is not what this novel is about -- because
While fascism was getting stronger in Europe and the world was slowly moving towards the disaster of the WWII, Benito Mussolini decided to correct an old wrong - 40 years earlier, in 1895-1896, Italy lost its war with Ethiopia for the African country's territory (and independence) and that had never sat well with the Italians - both at home and in Italian Eritrea. So in 1935 he declares the second Italo-Ethiopian War and sends his men marching. And the world is about to burn.
But we won't see the Italians for a while - the novel opens with Hirun - a young woman who, after she lost her family, now works for Kidane and Aster - a wealthy couple which had lost their only child, a son, on the same day she came to their household. Kidane and Hirun had known each other for a long time - although it will be much later in the novel that we will know the full extent of that statement - but Aster sees in her a competition and treats her accordingly.
The viewpoint the story it told from shifts occasionally although early in the novel it is mainly Hirun's. And in these uneasy days come the rumors that the Italians are coming and Kidane, as the local lord (there is probably a better word than this but that one conveys the meaning) needs to equip an army and defend the country. And Aster and Hirun will not allow to be left behind.
And when the Italians arrive, we are meeting the second protagonist of that framing story - Ettore Navarra, a Jewish Italian soldier whose job is to take pictures. His commanding officer is a bully who gets worse with time (especially after an attempts is made on his life) and the cruelty of war replaces most of the domestic drama that this all started with. Most but not all - because some of the worst cruelties will come from the hands of the people who one had known for a long time.
The structure of the story does not make much sense until you start seeing the references to Aida and you realize that you are looking at an opera - with chorus and interludes, with acts and scenes. And somewhere in between the acts are the photos - they are never printed, they are just described, as a still photo that is shown at the beginning of a still movie. And the opera and the photo album are so intertwined that they make a complete whole out of the parts.
In her note at the end of the novel Mengiste says that she wanted to tell the lost stories of the women that participated in the Italo-Ethiopian War (including her own great-grandmother), the forgotten fighters that had to go back home and be forgotten when it was all over. The chosen format helps - without that operatic structure, I would not considered that a successful attempt (we hear very little about most of the women) but it is all there -- partially nameless (and representing all women), partially on the actions of Astrid and Hirun and Fifi (a prostitute by day, a resistance leader by night) and the cook). And it also allows the rise of an unexpected hero - a man who had been called Noone by his own mother and who ends up being everything for everyone. By the end of the novel, roles will be reversed and the everything will want to be the noone -- and will try to be.
And as the novel progresses, you learn to recognize the parts -- in the Interludes we see Haile Selassie and his reactions, in the photo album we see most of the cruelty, the chorus adds the missing context and the acts and scenes carry the story. And while the story is careening towards its known end - the occupation of Ethiopia and then its liberation - the life of Ettore is also careening towards the abyss. Being a Jew is not the most healthy thing to be towards the end of the 30s.
And those stories intertwine -- changing the roles of the involved to the point where when someone talks for the future or we get a glimpse of it, we cannot tell who is the prisoner and who is the guard; we cannot tell who we need to be sympathetic to.
I liked the novel quite a lot but I wish an editor had cut some of it. Not the action - but the prose. Mengiste tends to be over-wordy in places where it seems like a single word will be enough (although she can also be economical with her prose where it actually matters). There are whole sections which read like an exercise in style and not as a part of the novel -- they are there mainly to show her way with words. Which works well now and then but when it happens every few pages, you wish someone had edited them out; by the middle of the novel they start being tiresome, despite their beauty.
For a novel about a war, where noone exits unscathed, it is a surprisingly upbeat one. Giving up, while considered often, is never an option and finding one's way through is considered the only way ahead -- a sentiment that the parents of all our main characters seem to have had - thus linking them again into an invisible net. And the cruelty does not always come from the enemy -- on either side.
I would still recommend the novel, even if it may be too wordy for a lot of people.
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this is used just as a framing device to allow Mengiste to tell the story of those pre-war years in Ethiopia - although calling them pre-war is not really correct. While fascism was getting stronger in Europe and the world was slowly moving towards the disaster of the WWII, Benito Mussolini decided to correct an old wrong - 40 years earlier, in 1895-1896, Italy lost its war with Ethiopia for the African country's territory (and independence) and that had never sat well with the Italians - both at home and in Italian Eritrea. So in 1935 he declares the second Italo-Ethiopian War and sends his men marching. And the world is about to burn.
But we won't see the Italians for a while - the novel opens with Hirun - a young woman who, after she lost her family, now works for Kidane and Aster - a wealthy couple which had lost their only child, a son, on the same day she came to their household. Kidane and Hirun had known each other for a long time - although it will be much later in the novel that we will know the full extent of that statement - but Aster sees in her a competition and treats her accordingly.
The viewpoint the story it told from shifts occasionally although early in the novel it is mainly Hirun's. And in these uneasy days come the rumors that the Italians are coming and Kidane, as the local lord (there is probably a better word than this but that one conveys the meaning) needs to equip an army and defend the country. And Aster and Hirun will not allow to be left behind.
And when the Italians arrive, we are meeting the second protagonist of that framing story - Ettore Navarra, a Jewish Italian soldier whose job is to take pictures. His commanding officer is a bully who gets worse with time (especially after an attempts is made on his life) and the cruelty of war replaces most of the domestic drama that this all started with. Most but not all - because some of the worst cruelties will come from the hands of the people who one had known for a long time.
The structure of the story does not make much sense until you start seeing the references to Aida and you realize that you are looking at an opera - with chorus and interludes, with acts and scenes. And somewhere in between the acts are the photos - they are never printed, they are just described, as a still photo that is shown at the beginning of a still movie. And the opera and the photo album are so intertwined that they make a complete whole out of the parts.
In her note at the end of the novel Mengiste says that she wanted to tell the lost stories of the women that participated in the Italo-Ethiopian War (including her own great-grandmother), the forgotten fighters that had to go back home and be forgotten when it was all over. The chosen format helps - without that operatic structure, I would not considered that a successful attempt (we hear very little about most of the women) but it is all there -- partially nameless (and representing all women), partially on the actions of Astrid and Hirun and Fifi (a prostitute by day, a resistance leader by night) and the cook). And it also allows the rise of an unexpected hero - a man who had been called Noone by his own mother and who ends up being everything for everyone. By the end of the novel, roles will be reversed and the everything will want to be the noone -- and will try to be.
And as the novel progresses, you learn to recognize the parts -- in the Interludes we see Haile Selassie and his reactions, in the photo album we see most of the cruelty, the chorus adds the missing context and the acts and scenes carry the story. And while the story is careening towards its known end - the occupation of Ethiopia and then its liberation - the life of Ettore is also careening towards the abyss. Being a Jew is not the most healthy thing to be towards the end of the 30s.
And those stories intertwine -- changing the roles of the involved to the point where when someone talks for the future or we get a glimpse of it, we cannot tell who is the prisoner and who is the guard; we cannot tell who we need to be sympathetic to.
I liked the novel quite a lot but I wish an editor had cut some of it. Not the action - but the prose. Mengiste tends to be over-wordy in places where it seems like a single word will be enough (although she can also be economical with her prose where it actually matters). There are whole sections which read like an exercise in style and not as a part of the novel -- they are there mainly to show her way with words. Which works well now and then but when it happens every few pages, you wish someone had edited them out; by the middle of the novel they start being tiresome, despite their beauty.
For a novel about a war, where noone exits unscathed, it is a surprisingly upbeat one. Giving up, while considered often, is never an option and finding one's way through is considered the only way ahead -- a sentiment that the parents of all our main characters seem to have had - thus linking them again into an invisible net. And the cruelty does not always come from the enemy -- on either side.
I would still recommend the novel, even if it may be too wordy for a lot of people.
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LibraryThing member janerawoof
Utterly enthralling novel of the invasion of Ethiopia in 1935 by Mussolini's fascist army, which lasted until 1941. The novel details how bands of guerrillas fight the Italian soldiers, concentrating on two "women warriors": Hirut and Aster. The emperor Haile Selassie is in exile in England, but to
The style was strange and was difficult to get used to: very lyrical in extended descriptions but no differentiation when people were speaking, i.e., no apostrophes. Many of the foreign words were explained, but I couldn't visualize the articles of clothing they wore; the author used Amharic terms she didn't explain. It wouldn't go amiss to read some background on the Italo-Ethiopian conflict before reading the novel. The author based the heroine on one of her ancestors, which was another point of interest.
Highly recommended.
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boost morale, Hirut seizes on the idea of a "shadow emperor": a simple peasant posing as the emperor to put heart into the Ethiopian soldiers that their emperor is with them leading them to victory. She becomes his bodyguard. We also meet Ettore, an Italian military photographer whose path crosses Hirut's. Ettore is not completely sympathetic with the Italian war effort. Years later after the Italians had been driven from that land the two meet again. She has a box of his with newspaper clippings, photos, and letters from that time, most importantly a letter from his father that he has treasured.The style was strange and was difficult to get used to: very lyrical in extended descriptions but no differentiation when people were speaking, i.e., no apostrophes. Many of the foreign words were explained, but I couldn't visualize the articles of clothing they wore; the author used Amharic terms she didn't explain. It wouldn't go amiss to read some background on the Italo-Ethiopian conflict before reading the novel. The author based the heroine on one of her ancestors, which was another point of interest.
Highly recommended.
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LibraryThing member kidzdoc
This historical novel about the Second Italo-Ethiopian War opens in the main bus station in Addis Ababa in 1974, just prior to the overthrow of Emperor Haile Selassie I, the revered head of Ethiopia since 1930. Hirut, the central character of this historical novel, carries a box containing the
Hirut is a beautiful young servant in the household of Kidane, a high ranking officer in the Ethiopian Army, and his wife Aster, a haughty and cruel woman who is jealous of Hirut's beauty and Kidane's attraction towards her. The narrative begins in 1935, as the Italian Army was set to invade Ethiopia from Italian Somaliland. Hirut is an orphan, and Kidane vowed to her mother before her death that he would look after her with kindness, although he could not protect her from the wrath of his headstrong wife. As Kidane and his men go off to war Aster and other women in the community desire to fight alongside the men, as they were taught to fire rifles and fight by their fathers, but they are instructed to stay behind and support them instead.
The badly equipped and trained Ethiopian Army, although superior in numbers, was overwhelmed by the Italian forces in early 1936, and before the capital of Addis Ababa could be captured Emperor Haile Selassie fled to England, which sapped the spirit of his people. Hirut, who was now no longer a servant to Kidare and Aster but a valuable member of the women who assisted Kidare's troop, noticed that one of the men looked exactly like the exiled emperor, and suggested that he be dressed as a "shadow king", in order to boost the morale of their countrymen during the war effort. She served as his loyal companion, but during a fateful battle against Fucelli and his army she fought bravely, but was captured and taken to a hilltop jail built by the Italians, where she and other Ethiopian fighters were cruelly tortured and killed, and escape seemed to be an impossible wish.
"The Shadow King" is filled with heroic and memorable but deeply flawed characters on both sides, and Hirut overcomes terrible cruelty from her masters and the Italians with a laudable toughness and bravery that inspire both those fighting alongside her, along with the Italian photographer Ettore, who sympathizes with her plight despite the danger it puts him in.
I struggled reading "The Shadow King", but that was largely due to my own difficulty concentrating, and in retrospect this is a superb and very well written novel about a little known conflict that could be considered the first battle of World War II, which is deserving of its place on this year's Booker Prize longlist.
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personal effects of Ettore Navarra, a photographer in the invading Italian army, whose task is to chronicle the successful war effort against the Ethiopians, in the face of Italy's humiliating defeat in the First Italo-Ethiopian War in the late 19th century. Ettore, whose ancestry put him and his Jewish father at risk of persecution and deportation during the war, has returned nearly 40 years after its conclusion to photograph the Ethiopian people at a time of turmoil, and wishes to reconnect with Hirut, who was captured by General Carlo Fucelli, the driven and sadistic leader of the invading forces.Hirut is a beautiful young servant in the household of Kidane, a high ranking officer in the Ethiopian Army, and his wife Aster, a haughty and cruel woman who is jealous of Hirut's beauty and Kidane's attraction towards her. The narrative begins in 1935, as the Italian Army was set to invade Ethiopia from Italian Somaliland. Hirut is an orphan, and Kidane vowed to her mother before her death that he would look after her with kindness, although he could not protect her from the wrath of his headstrong wife. As Kidane and his men go off to war Aster and other women in the community desire to fight alongside the men, as they were taught to fire rifles and fight by their fathers, but they are instructed to stay behind and support them instead.
The badly equipped and trained Ethiopian Army, although superior in numbers, was overwhelmed by the Italian forces in early 1936, and before the capital of Addis Ababa could be captured Emperor Haile Selassie fled to England, which sapped the spirit of his people. Hirut, who was now no longer a servant to Kidare and Aster but a valuable member of the women who assisted Kidare's troop, noticed that one of the men looked exactly like the exiled emperor, and suggested that he be dressed as a "shadow king", in order to boost the morale of their countrymen during the war effort. She served as his loyal companion, but during a fateful battle against Fucelli and his army she fought bravely, but was captured and taken to a hilltop jail built by the Italians, where she and other Ethiopian fighters were cruelly tortured and killed, and escape seemed to be an impossible wish.
"The Shadow King" is filled with heroic and memorable but deeply flawed characters on both sides, and Hirut overcomes terrible cruelty from her masters and the Italians with a laudable toughness and bravery that inspire both those fighting alongside her, along with the Italian photographer Ettore, who sympathizes with her plight despite the danger it puts him in.
I struggled reading "The Shadow King", but that was largely due to my own difficulty concentrating, and in retrospect this is a superb and very well written novel about a little known conflict that could be considered the first battle of World War II, which is deserving of its place on this year's Booker Prize longlist.
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LibraryThing member maryreinert
It is almost necessary to look up the Italian-Ethiopian War of 1935 to completely understand this novel. Set just after Italy has invaded Ethiopia, this is the story of the men and especially the women who resisted the Italians. Hirut is a young woman who finds herself as a maid in the house of a
As the invasion occurs, the women first take care of the sick and wounded, but soon Aster is also a leader as the women take on an increasingly active role in the warfare. At one point, Selassie fleas the country and another man who is a peasant looks so much like him that he is used as a "Shadow King" for Selassie.
Hirut, Aster, Kidane, and several other "rebels" are the main characters along with an Italian photographer, Ettore. Ettore is Jewish and is becoming aware of his own father's history and the fact that Jews will soon be persecuted in Italy.
I enjoyed most of the writing in this book and it certainly is a piece of history that I knew nothing about. There are many foreign phrases (usually can be easily understood, but at other times, overwhelming). Due to the complexity of the background to this war, I probably didn't appreciate as much as I should have. Best to just first read a Wikipedia article about the war to get background.
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leader in Haile Selassie's army. His wife Astra is often cruel to her and Kidane has made unwelcome advances more than once.As the invasion occurs, the women first take care of the sick and wounded, but soon Aster is also a leader as the women take on an increasingly active role in the warfare. At one point, Selassie fleas the country and another man who is a peasant looks so much like him that he is used as a "Shadow King" for Selassie.
Hirut, Aster, Kidane, and several other "rebels" are the main characters along with an Italian photographer, Ettore. Ettore is Jewish and is becoming aware of his own father's history and the fact that Jews will soon be persecuted in Italy.
I enjoyed most of the writing in this book and it certainly is a piece of history that I knew nothing about. There are many foreign phrases (usually can be easily understood, but at other times, overwhelming). Due to the complexity of the background to this war, I probably didn't appreciate as much as I should have. Best to just first read a Wikipedia article about the war to get background.
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LibraryThing member japaul22
[[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
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
Mengiste is a
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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 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
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LibraryThing member Bibliofemmes
The violence tends to overwhelm the beauty of the book. The language and telling is so beautifully crafted, the host of characters complex and dynamic as they change over time. The themes of women in war which are often overlooked or even worse, erased really resonate. This is a dark, difficult
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book to read, but should be read. Show Less
LibraryThing member hemlokgang
I had mixed feelings about this book. Set in Ethiopia in 1930, it is a piece of historical fiction which tells the story of Italy's invasion. It tells the story of women who were oppressed and women who became warriors. It tells the story of the "shadow king", the Haile Selassie look-alike. The
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historical aspects were interesting, but in some sections the story dragged on. I give it 4 stars because the use of language was quite lovely. A nicely written book. Show Less
LibraryThing member bookmuse56
A Gem of a Story
The Shadow King is a richly textured and carefully constructed compelling must-needed work of historical fiction. As Fascist Italy invades Ethiopia in 1935, the men prepare to defend their country, but the women of Ethiopia will not be denied to preserve their country. Mengiste
Pairing expressive language with well-drawn unforgettable characters the story grips the reader as we become involved in the intimate harrowing details of the characters against the broader background that is the history and politics of the time.
A richly rewarding reading experience this memorable work of historical fiction that provides a much needed Ethiopian point-of-view on one of the beginning points of WWII and equally needed what it means to be a woman at war.
The Shadow King is a richly textured and carefully constructed compelling must-needed work of historical fiction. As Fascist Italy invades Ethiopia in 1935, the men prepare to defend their country, but the women of Ethiopia will not be denied to preserve their country. Mengiste
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wrote this storyline to honor the women of Ethiopia who fought along side the men and are too often ignored in the history of wartime.Pairing expressive language with well-drawn unforgettable characters the story grips the reader as we become involved in the intimate harrowing details of the characters against the broader background that is the history and politics of the time.
A richly rewarding reading experience this memorable work of historical fiction that provides a much needed Ethiopian point-of-view on one of the beginning points of WWII and equally needed what it means to be a woman at war.
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LibraryThing member gypsysmom
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
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.
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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 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.
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LibraryThing member chrisblocker
The Shadow King presents a lesser known chapter in the story of World War II: the Italian invasion of Ethiopia--more specifically, the role women played in the conflict. Mengiste's story is fully imagined here. Readers can easily identify with Hirut and her intense desire to keep ahold of her gun,
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a gift from her father. Aster's wishes and desires were less easy to understand. I never quite grasped what she wanted and didn't want, particularly in her relationship with Hirut. All together, this story moves with tremendous writing and a compelling storyline. Show Less
LibraryThing member eas7788
The prose is lyrical and full of strong images. I appreciated it telling me a story I didn't know. It brought the landscape to life in many ways. Her use of multiple voices was effective. However, the plot often felt stalled to me -- the stress on a woman as a soldier, but then battle scenes that
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were confusing and did not involve much battle. Show Less
LibraryThing member bookomaniac
“War has no woman's face”, noted Nobel Prize winner Svetlana Alexievich. Maaza Mengistu presents her own version of this, based on the history of her homeland Ethiopia, but in a very different way. While Alexievich fairly dryly registered the testimonies of dozens of women and only intervened
It is clear that Mengiste was not only focussing on her people's heroic resistance to the brutal Italian occupation after 1935 (for which, to my knowledge, Italy was never punished). This is also apparent from the fact that she is very selective about historical facts (and does not mention, for example, the Eritrean complicity in the Italian adventure, probably because that does not suit the current rulers in Ethiopia). According to the long closing sentence, her focus was mainly on the position of women in the Ethiopian resistance. Through the duo Hirut-Aster she illustrates how powerful women also took up arms and ventured into battle. I have not been able to verify her claim that this is based on historical facts. With both Hirut and Aster she also underlines the dubious nature of the female position: despite their merits, both are kept under control by the resistance leader Kidane, including the male prerogative to also subdue his female fighters in a sexual way. This Kidane therefore takes on a very ambiguous character. Personally, I had some trouble with the character drawing of both women: Mengiste tries to give them some layering but does not quite succeed. Hirut in particular remains a bit stuck in a quagmire of conflicting feelings.
Strangely enough, the Italian protagonists, the vicious Colonel Fucelli and the terrified soldier-photographer Navarra, seem to come out much better. Through Navarra, Mengiste also makes a link with the holocaust, and here also she misuses historical facts (in 1935 Jews weren’t yet sent to extermination camps, and certainly in Italy there wasn’t a full-blown antisemitic policy yet). It is also significant that the whole story about the Shadow King is really just a minor side-intrigue, but by giving it the title of this book Mengiste disproves her gender focus.
In short, there are definitely some snags to this novel. But if you like a compelling story, and if you are sensitive to gender aspects, and not afraid of bombastic prose, you will certainly enjoy this novel.
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in the composition and style, Mengiste offers an almost completely fictionalized story, in a truly epic style. As others have already written, you kind of find yourself in a Verdian opera, so bombastic, 19th centurish Mengiste describes the battle scenes between the Italian invasion army and the Ethiopian rebels. I regularly had to think of the Iliad, only the intervening gods are missing. This ancient Greek reference is not that farfetched: Mengiste regularly also brings in a chorus to support the story and comment on it from a broader context. There's something repulsive about that bombastic approach, but at the same time also attractive, because it's epic-lyrical.It is clear that Mengiste was not only focussing on her people's heroic resistance to the brutal Italian occupation after 1935 (for which, to my knowledge, Italy was never punished). This is also apparent from the fact that she is very selective about historical facts (and does not mention, for example, the Eritrean complicity in the Italian adventure, probably because that does not suit the current rulers in Ethiopia). According to the long closing sentence, her focus was mainly on the position of women in the Ethiopian resistance. Through the duo Hirut-Aster she illustrates how powerful women also took up arms and ventured into battle. I have not been able to verify her claim that this is based on historical facts. With both Hirut and Aster she also underlines the dubious nature of the female position: despite their merits, both are kept under control by the resistance leader Kidane, including the male prerogative to also subdue his female fighters in a sexual way. This Kidane therefore takes on a very ambiguous character. Personally, I had some trouble with the character drawing of both women: Mengiste tries to give them some layering but does not quite succeed. Hirut in particular remains a bit stuck in a quagmire of conflicting feelings.
Strangely enough, the Italian protagonists, the vicious Colonel Fucelli and the terrified soldier-photographer Navarra, seem to come out much better. Through Navarra, Mengiste also makes a link with the holocaust, and here also she misuses historical facts (in 1935 Jews weren’t yet sent to extermination camps, and certainly in Italy there wasn’t a full-blown antisemitic policy yet). It is also significant that the whole story about the Shadow King is really just a minor side-intrigue, but by giving it the title of this book Mengiste disproves her gender focus.
In short, there are definitely some snags to this novel. But if you like a compelling story, and if you are sensitive to gender aspects, and not afraid of bombastic prose, you will certainly enjoy this novel.
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LibraryThing member Lindoula
A nice collection of stories from all over Africa and the disapora(s). I didn't love every story, but it introduced me to a lot of authors I wouldn't have otherwise found.
LibraryThing member thornton37814
I wanted to like this book based on the Italian invasion of Ethiopia during World War II, but I just could not get into the story. I finally gave up trying.
LibraryThing member tangledthread
Interesting story, but the writing was overshadowed by the overwhelming descriptions of violence.
LibraryThing member books-n-pickles
This book wasn't much like what I expected, and I'm trying to figure out how I feel about that. At least on my advanced reader's copy, the description focused on Hirut and her work to pass off the "shadow king" as the absent emperor, her work guarding him, and the contributions of women in war. All
Yes, Hirut is probably the character who gets the most page space, but Ettore Navarra, a photographer with the invading Italian army whose Jewish ancestors are only now becoming relevant, gets a significant amount of page space as well. So do Kidane, Hirut's employer who becomes the leader of their branch of the Ethiopian resistance (and a complete !#$%$# to Hirut), and Carolo Fucelli, an absolutely horrendous Italian colonel with an odd mix of barbarity and civility. (He has Ettore photograph each prisoner before and while he has them thrown off a cliff, but when Hirut and Aster, Kidane's wife, are captured, Aster is raped once and then both women are kept alive in prison, repeatedly photographed half-naked, but physically unharmed. I think Mengiste wanted us to have mixed feelings about him for the protective and paternal feelings he has for Ettore, but that never got to me--the guy throws people off cliffs and photographs their deaths. No, it was the fact that Fucilli kept Hirut and Aster alive and unharmed that confused me. ) Others who get some page time include emperor in exile Haile Selassie, who gets quite a few "Interludes"; Aster, Kidane's wife; Fifi, Fucelli's Ethiopian mistress; and a "Chorus" of Ethiopian women who try to reassure Hirut and Aster that they they have shared their domestic horrors, like wedding night rape, and who refer to the songs that they will someday sing about Hirut and Aster's roles in the war…though given that Mengiste starts the book with a foreword saying that she had no idea of her own great-grandmother’s participation, it’s hard to find these choruses that inspiring.
The structure of the book is interesting in its own right. While most chapters are given over to one character or another, as the book goes on (and especially in the battle scenes) the point of view will switch without warning from one paragraph to the next. This certainly speaks to the confusion of battle, but it feels more like a matter of convenience when it starts showing up in the quiet parts of the second half of the book. In addition to the emperor's "Interludes" and the occasional "Chorus", there are also several "Photo" vignettes describing in emotional as well as visual detail the photographs that Ettore takes of his surroundings, from innocent things like the camp cook and the Italian army on the move to horrors like Ethiopians on display before death, hanging from a tree, hurtling over a cliff. Photography and image-building are incredibly important to the story, so the descriptions aren't relegated only to these spaces, but the "Photo" sections do give space for the subjects to stand on their own, outside of the context of Fucelli's artistic interests and Ettore's (ugh) aesthetics. Ettore is one of those people who's "just following orders" but also enjoying his art even as he tries to hide behind his camera to wall himself off from what happens in front of it. (I did some searching and found out that the photo bits are inspired by Mengiste's collection of real photos from the war.)
Oh, and there are no quotation marks around dialogue, which I'm seeing so much in newer books that it's starting to feel more like a sign of, "Hey, I'm being literary here!" and less like a thought-about choice. That's kind of rude of me to bring up here, because if there's any book where a lack of quotation marks is appropriate, it's The Shadow King. I already mentioned that battle scenes get split into multiple points of view, but there are also a few places where I think the reader is meant to confront their assumptions about who, exactly, is speaking--enough to interest but not annoy me, despite my opening to this paragraph.
The writing itself was beautiful but, I must admit, it felt overwritten in just a few places in battles and landscapes, where I had to reread a paragraph or a page to parse through the imagery to get to the substance. But overall it was much more lovely than purple.
So I got a fantastic, thoughtful, beautifully structured and -written book that, had I known what to expect, I would have appreciated much more. But I went into this expecting a story "by" and about the women who challenged their supporting roles in the resistance in order to do the actual fighting. Instead,Hirut and Aster take part in only one battle, in which they are captured. They escape, but then there's a big jump to the end of the war when we're told that Aster had been leading the guerilla resistance with Hirut's help--but we see none of it.
I would have liked an author's note with some history. [HUGE caveat here--I'm reading an ARC, it's entirely possible one was added later.] I went to the Wikipedia page about the Second Italo-Ethiopian War looking for more information and felt a bit of dissonance. Some of the atrocities the Italian army perpetrated on the people of Ethiopia felt almost glanced over in the novel. Yes, we've got one Italian officer who's sadistic one-on-one, but the extent of the use of poison and mustard gas felt underplayed, there wasn't mention of the deliberate three-day massacre in Addis Ababa, and in real life there didn't seem to be as much of an organized resistance during the bulk of the occupation (skipped over the plot) as Mengiste suggests. Was the first big battle we read about the Christmas Offensive? Was there really a "shadow king"? Was there an individual officer who inspired Fucilli, or a place in Ethiopia that inspired his prison? Where can we learn more about the women like Mengiste's great-grandmother who fought in the war? There isn’t much to be found with a simple search so a little help would be nice.
Still, it's a rare book that makes me miss by subway stop, which I did in the last 40 pages of The Shadow King.
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that's there, but the description gives these things much more prominence than they get in the text. Yes, Hirut is probably the character who gets the most page space, but Ettore Navarra, a photographer with the invading Italian army whose Jewish ancestors are only now becoming relevant, gets a significant amount of page space as well. So do Kidane, Hirut's employer who becomes the leader of their branch of the Ethiopian resistance (and a complete !#$%$# to Hirut), and Carolo Fucelli, an absolutely horrendous Italian colonel with an odd mix of barbarity and civility. (
The structure of the book is interesting in its own right. While most chapters are given over to one character or another, as the book goes on (and especially in the battle scenes) the point of view will switch without warning from one paragraph to the next. This certainly speaks to the confusion of battle, but it feels more like a matter of convenience when it starts showing up in the quiet parts of the second half of the book. In addition to the emperor's "Interludes" and the occasional "Chorus", there are also several "Photo" vignettes describing in emotional as well as visual detail the photographs that Ettore takes of his surroundings, from innocent things like the camp cook and the Italian army on the move to horrors like Ethiopians on display before death, hanging from a tree, hurtling over a cliff. Photography and image-building are incredibly important to the story, so the descriptions aren't relegated only to these spaces, but the "Photo" sections do give space for the subjects to stand on their own, outside of the context of Fucelli's artistic interests and Ettore's (ugh) aesthetics. Ettore is one of those people who's "just following orders" but also enjoying his art even as he tries to hide behind his camera to wall himself off from what happens in front of it. (I did some searching and found out that the photo bits are inspired by Mengiste's collection of real photos from the war.)
Oh, and there are no quotation marks around dialogue, which I'm seeing so much in newer books that it's starting to feel more like a sign of, "Hey, I'm being literary here!" and less like a thought-about choice. That's kind of rude of me to bring up here, because if there's any book where a lack of quotation marks is appropriate, it's The Shadow King. I already mentioned that battle scenes get split into multiple points of view, but there are also a few places where I think the reader is meant to confront their assumptions about who, exactly, is speaking--enough to interest but not annoy me, despite my opening to this paragraph.
The writing itself was beautiful but, I must admit, it felt overwritten in just a few places in battles and landscapes, where I had to reread a paragraph or a page to parse through the imagery to get to the substance. But overall it was much more lovely than purple.
So I got a fantastic, thoughtful, beautifully structured and -written book that, had I known what to expect, I would have appreciated much more. But I went into this expecting a story "by" and about the women who challenged their supporting roles in the resistance in order to do the actual fighting. Instead,
I would have liked an author's note with some history. [HUGE caveat here--I'm reading an ARC, it's entirely possible one was added later.] I went to the Wikipedia page about the Second Italo-Ethiopian War looking for more information and felt a bit of dissonance. Some of the atrocities the Italian army perpetrated on the people of Ethiopia felt almost glanced over in the novel. Yes, we've got one Italian officer who's sadistic one-on-one, but the extent of the use of poison and mustard gas felt underplayed, there wasn't mention of the deliberate three-day massacre in Addis Ababa, and in real life there didn't seem to be as much of an organized resistance during the bulk of the occupation (skipped over the plot) as Mengiste suggests. Was the first big battle we read about the Christmas Offensive? Was there really a "shadow king"? Was there an individual officer who inspired Fucilli, or a place in Ethiopia that inspired his prison? Where can we learn more about the women like Mengiste's great-grandmother who fought in the war? There isn’t much to be found with a simple search so a little help would be nice.
Still, it's a rare book that makes me miss by subway stop, which I did in the last 40 pages of The Shadow King.
Show Less
LibraryThing member Castlelass
“He raises his arm and brings it down and hurls his voice into the valley: Charge! He screams it though there is no way he can be heard. Charge! The war cries erupt, the ascari surge forward, the air thickens with dust and voice and horn, and soon the chaos no longer spins. It is his to control.
Sweeping historic fiction about the invasion of Ethiopia in 1935 by Mussolini’s troops. It highlights the active role women played in the war, moving from support to full-fledged soldiers. It opens in 1974, as protagonist Hirut returns to Addis Ababa with a mysterious box. It then flashes back to tell her story. It is not just a story of war, though. It is also a story of family. It includes characters from both sides, portraying their personalities, backstories, and motivations.
This is an ambitious novel. The characters are deeply developed. There are many forms of “shadows,” such as photographs that evoke memories of those who died in the war, a body double for Emperor Haile Selassie (who fled to England), the victims that maintain their dignity in the face of horrific cruelty, and others who become a shadow of their former selves in a multitude of ways. It weaves in descriptions of photos, a Greek chorus, and Interludes.
“A group of Abyssinians are astride horses in brightly colored saddles at the top of the hill across the valley. They are galloping down at full speed, a burst of light and color: a dozen warriors with wild hair, their cries like a discordant Greek chorus. Far ahead of them, that improbable figure, his chest exposed to the soldati, leaping over stone and grass, incomprehensible. Beautiful, even.”
It starts slowly and builds up to the climactic battle. It feels fragmented at times, but overall, it is a lyrically written, powerful evocation of a piece of history. It inspired me to research more about the Italo-Ethiopian wars. As a caution, this book contains extreme war-related brutality, murder of civilians, and rape.
“Here is the truth he wants to ignore: that what is forged into memory tucks itself into bone and muscle. It will always be there and it will follow us to the grave.”
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It becomes exhilarating. And as the ascari dash across the field, he imagines the coming clash as colossal and symphonic, operatic and tragic.”Sweeping historic fiction about the invasion of Ethiopia in 1935 by Mussolini’s troops. It highlights the active role women played in the war, moving from support to full-fledged soldiers. It opens in 1974, as protagonist Hirut returns to Addis Ababa with a mysterious box. It then flashes back to tell her story. It is not just a story of war, though. It is also a story of family. It includes characters from both sides, portraying their personalities, backstories, and motivations.
This is an ambitious novel. The characters are deeply developed. There are many forms of “shadows,” such as photographs that evoke memories of those who died in the war, a body double for Emperor Haile Selassie (who fled to England), the victims that maintain their dignity in the face of horrific cruelty, and others who become a shadow of their former selves in a multitude of ways. It weaves in descriptions of photos, a Greek chorus, and Interludes.
“A group of Abyssinians are astride horses in brightly colored saddles at the top of the hill across the valley. They are galloping down at full speed, a burst of light and color: a dozen warriors with wild hair, their cries like a discordant Greek chorus. Far ahead of them, that improbable figure, his chest exposed to the soldati, leaping over stone and grass, incomprehensible. Beautiful, even.”
It starts slowly and builds up to the climactic battle. It feels fragmented at times, but overall, it is a lyrically written, powerful evocation of a piece of history. It inspired me to research more about the Italo-Ethiopian wars. As a caution, this book contains extreme war-related brutality, murder of civilians, and rape.
“Here is the truth he wants to ignore: that what is forged into memory tucks itself into bone and muscle. It will always be there and it will follow us to the grave.”
Show Less
LibraryThing member BrokenTune
“Once, it was said that the emperor of Ethiopia was like a sun to his people. But these days have proven that we live and die in the shadows, the emperor thinks. We do nothing but hold dominion over all that rests in shade and fog. All else is an illusion, a falsified appearance, a ghostly twin
I finished The Shadow King (2019) yesterday evening. Such an odd book.
I’m glad I read it, and it is a book that needs to exist because it brings a part of history that tends to be sidelined to a new audience.
As the author says in her afterword, and I totally agree, the role of women in the second Italo-Ethiopian War had been written out of history and needs to be retold.
No, my discontent with the book is not with its premise or story or intent, but with the delivery.
While the writing – very descriptive and metaphorical … almost but not quite purple – took me ages to get used to, by the end of the book, I really liked it. It was a part of the form of story-telling that one imagines in epic tales. It’s beautiful but not very practical or to the point. It demands a lot patience and attention from the reader.
I also liked the story itself and the way that Mengiste switched points of view between the different characters including Hirut, Ettore, Haille Selassie, etc. and used flashbacks to set up the story as well as parts of Aida, the opera (I do love Verdi), to tell what happens.
It was a very well thought out and complex book and I appreciated a lot in how this was not an easy read, how the book challenged the reader.
What he knows is this: there is no past, there is no “what happened,” there is only the moment that unfolds into the next, dragging everything with it, constantly renewing. Everything is happening at once.
But the crux of my discontent is the most horrible of all faults that a book can have: Having read 15% of the book, it became really, really boring and didn’t pick up until the last 25%.
And this left more than half of the book boring me with a stagnating plot, repetive descriptions of violence against women, torture, and an indroduction to so, so many characters who would perish shorlty after they were introduced.
Focus in close, Carlo Fucelli says to the cameraman as his men set up their barricades. Pan up slowly. Get wide shots of the prison and swoop right to capture the cliffs. Shoot from the rebels’ perspective. Get your stills of the landscape before the attack. The Abyssinians are on their way and we’ll defend our country as you have never seen. I will give you a battle worthy of the Roman Empire, worthy of the great Trojan conflict. I won’t send the tanks or cannons to destroy them before they approach. I won’t bring the planes to spray them with poison while they’re still getting dressed to fight. We will do this as our fathers did and win for Italy with bayoneted rifles and bare hands. Focus and zoom and steady the shots. Prepare for wondrous displays of bravery. Look! Behold the enemy now in the dust rising on the horizon. See their might but do not be deceived: they will come as Memnon came for Achilles. And they will die just the same.
Look, I get it. It’s a book about war. People die and people suffer the most horrible experiences. But describing these things over and over without moving the plot does not make for compelling reading. If anything, it seems gratuitous and I was looking for ways to skim these parts – which is not easy in a book that does not have quotation marks.
Also, for a book that is meant to cast a light on the women who took part in the fighting, why do we only get to know two of them? The rest of the characters and stories are all about the men? I know there was also “the cook”, but she didn’t even get a name, never mind a story.
So, overall, I think the book was an interesting read for its premise and concept and some of the writing, but it was also really disappointing.
Chorus
Sing, daughters, of one woman and one thousand, of those multitudes who rushed like wind to free a country from poisonous beasts.
Sing, children, of those who came before you, of those who laid the path on which you tread toward warmer suns.
Sing, men, of valiant Aster and furious Hirut and their blinding light across a shadowed land.
Sing of those who are no more,
Sing of the giants still amongst you,
Sing of those yet to be born.
Sing.
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that trails behind us, hungering after our every breath.”I finished The Shadow King (2019) yesterday evening. Such an odd book.
I’m glad I read it, and it is a book that needs to exist because it brings a part of history that tends to be sidelined to a new audience.
As the author says in her afterword, and I totally agree, the role of women in the second Italo-Ethiopian War had been written out of history and needs to be retold.
No, my discontent with the book is not with its premise or story or intent, but with the delivery.
While the writing – very descriptive and metaphorical … almost but not quite purple – took me ages to get used to, by the end of the book, I really liked it. It was a part of the form of story-telling that one imagines in epic tales. It’s beautiful but not very practical or to the point. It demands a lot patience and attention from the reader.
I also liked the story itself and the way that Mengiste switched points of view between the different characters including Hirut, Ettore, Haille Selassie, etc. and used flashbacks to set up the story as well as parts of Aida, the opera (I do love Verdi), to tell what happens.
It was a very well thought out and complex book and I appreciated a lot in how this was not an easy read, how the book challenged the reader.
What he knows is this: there is no past, there is no “what happened,” there is only the moment that unfolds into the next, dragging everything with it, constantly renewing. Everything is happening at once.
But the crux of my discontent is the most horrible of all faults that a book can have: Having read 15% of the book, it became really, really boring and didn’t pick up until the last 25%.
And this left more than half of the book boring me with a stagnating plot, repetive descriptions of violence against women, torture, and an indroduction to so, so many characters who would perish shorlty after they were introduced.
Focus in close, Carlo Fucelli says to the cameraman as his men set up their barricades. Pan up slowly. Get wide shots of the prison and swoop right to capture the cliffs. Shoot from the rebels’ perspective. Get your stills of the landscape before the attack. The Abyssinians are on their way and we’ll defend our country as you have never seen. I will give you a battle worthy of the Roman Empire, worthy of the great Trojan conflict. I won’t send the tanks or cannons to destroy them before they approach. I won’t bring the planes to spray them with poison while they’re still getting dressed to fight. We will do this as our fathers did and win for Italy with bayoneted rifles and bare hands. Focus and zoom and steady the shots. Prepare for wondrous displays of bravery. Look! Behold the enemy now in the dust rising on the horizon. See their might but do not be deceived: they will come as Memnon came for Achilles. And they will die just the same.
Look, I get it. It’s a book about war. People die and people suffer the most horrible experiences. But describing these things over and over without moving the plot does not make for compelling reading. If anything, it seems gratuitous and I was looking for ways to skim these parts – which is not easy in a book that does not have quotation marks.
Also, for a book that is meant to cast a light on the women who took part in the fighting, why do we only get to know two of them? The rest of the characters and stories are all about the men? I know there was also “the cook”, but she didn’t even get a name, never mind a story.
So, overall, I think the book was an interesting read for its premise and concept and some of the writing, but it was also really disappointing.
Chorus
Sing, daughters, of one woman and one thousand, of those multitudes who rushed like wind to free a country from poisonous beasts.
Sing, children, of those who came before you, of those who laid the path on which you tread toward warmer suns.
Sing, men, of valiant Aster and furious Hirut and their blinding light across a shadowed land.
Sing of those who are no more,
Sing of the giants still amongst you,
Sing of those yet to be born.
Sing.
Show Less
Awards
Booker Prize (Longlist — 2020)
LA Times Book Prize (Finalist — Fiction — 2019)
HWA Crown Awards (Longlist — Gold — 2020)
NPR: Books We Love (2019)
The New York Times Notable Books of the Year (Fiction — 2019)
Globe and Mail Top 100 Book (Fiction — 2020)