The Shadow King is a novel by Maaza Mengiste. When I describe it to friends, I say that the beautiful writing sits in stark contrast to the atrocities in the story. I don’t generally read books for the writing, but it was the writing as well as the story that captivated me in this case.
The story starts in 1974 in Addis Ababa. Hirut waits at the train station for Etorre to return a box to him. She is two days early. That’s all we know until we travel back in time to 1935. There, we find out why she has the box.
Fighting in a War
Most of the story takes place in the 1930s, during the Italian-Ethiopian war. We meet the ascari, the fighters for Italy from Eritrea, Colonel Fucelli, the sadistic leader of the Italian Army, Akilu and the other men in Kidane’s army.
While Kidane’s army has few guns and little ammunition, they are courageous in fighting the Italians. Even after Haile Selassie escapes to England in exile, they continue to fight.
While women are not initially welcomed to fight, Aster takes up weapons and insists on taking part in the war. Hirut and the cook are also instrumental in fighting the Italians.
Music is woven into the story. In one chorus of the book, Mengiste writes, “Sing, men, of valiant Aster and the furious Hirut and their blinding light across a shadowed land.”
Etorre, a Venetian Jew, is also a key character in the book. According to his mother, his first words were, “We must all suffer our consequences”. He is one of the soldiers in the Italian army. His role is to document the war through photography. Much of the photos are staged to create the story, the memory that the army’s leader, Colonel Fucelli, wants to create.
We see war goes on, we learn some of this history of significant features of the war. While this is a book of fiction, it effectively explores the concepts of duty and memory, and the limits of human hope and human suffering.
At the Train Station
Hirut and Etorre meet in the train station to exchange mementos of the past. The key theme in the book is memory. As Hirut looks at Etorre, she thinks, “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”. We see this truth as we once again meet the central characters of the story.
Final Verdict of The Shadow King
I wondered how much of this story was true and it inspired me to learn a bit of Ethiopian history. This is a book of fiction that captures some of the elements of the war and explores the impact it has on the people involved.
I recommend this book. I give it 5 stars. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
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