★ 08/01/2019
As you likely know, Mussolini's Italy invaded Ethiopia in the 1930s during the buildup to World War II after a late 19th-century invasion resulted in Italy's humiliating defeat. Much of the Ethiopian population rose in arms to fight this second invasion; Emperor Haile Selassie decreed that women were to accompany the fighting men, originally as helpmeets, but the women evolved into a fighting force. Mengiste's fictionalized history follows a young orphan woman, Hirut, a servant of Ethiopian fighter Kidane and his warrior wife, Aster. Hirut becomes a skilled soldier and is the brains behind a clever ruse that rallies the Ethiopian troops. When she is briefly captured, a tenuous alliance forms between her and an Italian soldier, Navarra, a regimental photographer under orders to document his sadistic Italian commander's atrocities. Navarra, who is Jewish, grows increasingly horrified by his own complicity with the fascists. VERDICT Mengiste's (Beneath the Lion's Gaze ) tale of Ethiopian women warriors is fascinating and tension-filled. Her prose style is to show rather than tell, with short, cinematic chapters dense with imagery and sensory detail. Descriptions of the fog of battle are exquisite and horrific, all the more remarkable for being told from a woman's point of view. Highly recommended. [See Prepub Alert, 3/4/19.]—Reba Leiding, emeritus, James Madison Univ. Lib., Harrisonburg, VA
"Maaza Mengiste has given us a powerful tale of a woman warrior—not some mythical superhero, but a girl who holds on to the memory of her parents and her father’s gun and longs to do battle to avenge their loss. Reminiscent of Maxine Hong Kingston’s Woman Warrior and Marlon James’s The Book of Night Women , this is a compelling story of female empowerment and an epic one at that."
"Lyrical, remarkable."
Editors’ Choice New York Times Book Review
"Capacious.… adopts the register of myth to shape an epic of nationhood and resistance."
"One of the most affecting accounts of the terror of war I have ever read, all the more so for the being cloaked in the language of beauty, such that the words and their meaning burn through the senses. The Shadow King is a work borne of rage, a rage made magnificent for its compassion and the story it tells us—that in war there are no winners."
"Unforgettable.… [A] propulsive read that captures a historical moment from a fresh perspective."
"A beautiful and thoughtful epic."
Los Angeles Review of Books - Francesca Capossela
"In haunting and beautiful prose, Mengiste shines a light on those whose lives are not often heralded."
"With epic sweep and dignity, Mengiste has lifted this struggle into legend, along with the women who fought in it. Beautiful, horrifying, elegant, and haunted, The Shadow King is a modern classic."
"Monumental.… Mengiste’s extraordinary characters—shrewd Kidane, militant Aster, the enigmatic cook, narcissistic Italian commander Fucelli, conflicted photographer Ettore, elusive prostitute Fifi, even haunted Selassie—epitomize the impossibly intricate ties between humanity and monstrosity, and the unthinkable, immeasurable cost of survival."
Booklist (starred review)
"The Shadow King exposes a brutal chapter in Ethiopia’s history and urges readers to listen for the untold stories of war, especially those of women."
Shelf Awareness - Katie Noah Gibson
"The Shadow King is a beautiful and devastating work; of women holding together a world ripping itself apart. They will slip into your dreams and overtake your memories."
"Lyrical, remarkable... breathtakingly skillful... The reader feels...in the steady hands of a master... Hirut [is] as indelible and compelling a hero as any I've read in years."
"The Shadow King is not a story about helpless victims of colonial conquest. Against the odds, it is written in a key of pride and exaltation, and its characters have the outsize form of national heroes... Mengiste ambitiously stretches her canvas to include colliding perspectives... Stirring."
Wall Street Journal - Sam Sacks
"The Shadow King is a novel about war and history, both epic in scope and intimate in detail…Maaza Mengiste has a gift for rendering everyone in this story, resister and invader alike, with great nuance and complexity, leaving us with no room for easy judgment. A wonderful book."
"Ambitious and illuminating."
Real Simple - Elizabeth Sile
"A sprawling, unforgettable epic from an immensely talented author who's unafraid to take risks... [R]endered all the more effective by Mengiste's gift at creating memorable characters... The star of the novel, however, is Mengiste's gorgeous writing, which makes The Shadow King nearly impossible to put down... [O]ne of the most beautiful novels of the year."
"Stunning.… [Mengiste] produced a work of fiction that is epic in reach, with brilliant borrowings from the forms of classic tragedy.… The book is impossible to put down or put out of mind."
BookPage (starred review)
"A brilliant novel, lyrically lifting history towards myth. It’s also compulsively readable. I devoured it in two days."
"Unforgettable.… [A] propulsive read that captures a historical moment from a fresh perspective."