The Shadow King

Maaza Mengiste (Author)

Adult

ISBN 9781838851163

First edition.

publication

Canongate Books Ltd, 2020

428 pages

Maaza Mengiste

Book

Physical resource 3 libraries

Subject

Italo-Ethiopian War, 1935-1936--Fiction., Ethiopia--History--1889-1974--Fiction., World War, 1939-1945--Women--Fiction., World War, 1939-1945--Campaigns--Ethiopia--Fiction., Abessinienkriget 1935-1936, Andra världskriget 1939-1945, Etiopien, Kvinnor, Krig

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Summary

"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