The Shadow King - Booker Shortlist 2020

'DEVASTATING' Marlon James, 'A MODERN CLASSIC' Andrew Sean Greer, 'INCREDIBLE' Lemn Sissay, 'BRILLIANT' Salman Rushdie, 'MAGNIFICIENT' Aminatta Forna, 'EPIC' Mary Morris, 'WONDERFUL' Laila Lalami, 'UNFORGETTABLE' The Times , 'REMARKABLE' New York Times ETHIOPIA. 1935. With the threat of Mussolini's army looming, recently orphaned Hirut struggles to adapt to her new life as a maid. Her new employer, Kidane, an officer in Emperor Haile Selassie's army, rushes to mobilise his strongest men before the Italians invade. Hirut and the other women long to do more than care for the wounded and bury the dead. When Emperor Haile Selassie goes into exile and Ethiopia quickly loses hope, it is Hirut who offers a plan to maintain morale. She helps disguise a gentle peasant as the emperor and soon becomes his guard, inspiring other women to take up arms. But how could she have predicted her own personal war, still to come, as a prisoner of one of Italy's most vicious officers? The Shadow King is a gorgeously crafted and unputdownable exploration of female power, and what it means to be a woman at war.

Report

A beautifully crafted account of the female soldiers resisting Mussolini's invasion of Ethiopia in 1935 and their own oppression in Ethiopian society. Lyrical, furious and meticulously researched, it is a necessary act of historical reclamation Guardian, Best Books of the Year

Product details

• Authors: Maaza Mengiste, Mengiste Maaza
• Publisher: Canongate Books
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback
• Released: 30.09.2020
• EAN: 9781838851170
• ISBN: 978-1-83885-117-0
• No. of pages: 448
• Dimensions: 129 mm x 198 mm x 27 mm
• Series: 202 POCHE
• Subjects: Fiction > Narrative literature; Fiction > Narrative literature > Contemporary literature (from 1945); 1930 bis 1939 n. Chr., Belletristik: allgemein und literarisch, Äthiopien, FICTION / Historical / General, FICTION / Literary, Abessinien, Englische Bücher / Belletristik / Historischer Roman, Erzählung, Dreißiger Jahre / Roman, Erzählung, c 1930 to c 1939, Fiction: general and literary, Ethiopia