by Dinaw Mengestu
Truly a beautiful book! It's hard for me to imagine that this young, driven author was able to describe so well the aimlessness, the lack of drive and energy of Sepha. The novel is about Ethiopian immigrants, but it is really about anyone who is detatched and lost.The setting is D. C., but it is rea...
I'll admit I picked this audio up because Dion Graham did the narration and his performance did not disappoint and really carried this slight and rather depressing narrative of an Ethiopian immigrant's experiences in Washington D.C.
Good book overall - makes you really think about how everyone has a story, and that you really don't know people until you get to learn their story a bit more. Book gives a glimpse at understanding immigrant male friendships a bit more. And also shows how a little ambition and dedication - going ...
Definitely a book to read for those interested in Ethiopian/African themes. Not the best book I've read on the topic of Ethiopian Diaspora (Cutting for Stone and Sweetness in the Belly are loads better IMO), but still worth the read.
A good book which gets to the substance of the novel too late, and then rushes to get it all in. It is well crafted and perhaps too careful, but the story of three long-time immigrants from Africa is interesting. The main character has more substance than we get to see, but he is intriguing neverthe...
Rating: 4.25* of fiveHow wonderful it is to find a first novel that feels so accomplished and tells such an engrossing story. I can't imagine that real, enjoyable talent is becoming rarer in a world that contains such eloquent proofs of its health.Mengestu tells the story of three friends, African i...
A quiet take on the desperation and stasis affecting an Ethiopian immigrant to the USA.
Ethiopia.Some have said that this is a slow novel in which little happens. While I think these comments are true, they are not negative, and stopping there misses the point. Nor is it simply a story of the erosion of the immigrant's dream. Sepha Stephanos is not just an immigrant from Ethiopia who f...
Sepha Stephanos left Ethiopia after his father’s death at the hands of Ethiopian revolutionaries for a new life in America. Sepha opens a store and manages to pass days and then years selling small grocery items to the poor residents of the neighborhood. But his life feels meaningless and inconseque...
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