The Shadow King
Ethiopia

The Shadow King

by Maaza Mengiste

War & Conflict Historical Fiction Literary Fiction 2019

Summary

Ethiopia, 1935. As Mussolini’s Italian army prepares to invade, Hirut, a recently orphaned young woman, struggles to survive in the household of Kidane, an officer in Emperor Haile Selassie’s army. When war erupts, Hirut and other Ethiopian women refuse to remain on the sidelines, limited to nursing the wounded and burying the dead. They want to fight for their country, but their courage must overcome not only the invading army but also the expectations of a society that rarely recognises women’s strength.

When the emperor is forced into exile, Hirut devises an extraordinary plan to restore hope: she helps disguise a humble peasant as the emperor and becomes his personal guard. Meanwhile, Ettore, a Jewish Italian photographer serving with the invading forces, struggles with his own conscience as he witnesses the brutality of the occupation. Moving between the perspectives of soldiers, civilians, and women on the battlefield, The Shadow King reclaims a neglected chapter of Ethiopian history. It is a powerful exploration of resistance, sacrifice, and the women whose contributions to war have too often been erased.

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Country
Ethiopia
Africa
About the author
Maaza Mengiste
Maaza Mengiste

Maaza Mengiste is an Ethiopian-American novelist and essayist born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Her family left the country when she was a child, and her experiences of displacement and historical memory have influenced her writing. She studied English and creative writing at the University of California, Berkeley, and earned an MFA from New York University. Her debut novel, Beneath the Lion’s Gaze (2010), explores the impact of the Ethiopian Revolution on one family and was named one of The Guardian’s ten best contemporary African books. Her second novel, The Shadow King (2019), was shortlisted for the 2020 Booker Prize and praised for bringing the experiences of Ethiopian women fighters during the Italian invasion into the literary spotlight. Mengiste has received a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship and a fellowship from the Fulbright Program. Her essays and fiction have appeared in The New Yorker, Granta, and The New York Times. She lives in New York City.

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Details
Published
2019
Author
Maaza Mengiste