Addis Ababa Noir
Addis Ababa Noir
paperback
Published:
20 July, 2021
Description
More Details
| Type | Book |
|---|---|
| ISBN13 | 9781913175191 |
| ISBN10 | 1913175197 |
| Number Of Pages | 256 |
| Item Weight | 1000 g |
| Publisher / Reseller | Cassava Republic Press |
| Format | paperback |
| Edition | International |
Media Reviews
What I found when I wanted to read the next short story in this anthology, was that I had to take a rest. The stories in Addis Ababa Noir are that powerful. The finished story was good. Ergo, I wanted to read the next one.
Not all the stories involve crime, but the anthology contains many gems and all hold a mirror to life and death in a country riven by civil warfare, notably one by Mengiste herself where experts from Argentina are called in to identify bodies of ‘disappeared’ Ethiopians. On the lighter side there is a wonderful piece of social observation in Bewketu Seyoum’s Under the Minibus Ceiling which follows the random thoughts and conversations of passengers on a bus, which range from the price of berbere (a blend of hot spices integral to Ethiopian cooking), how to confuse the Prophet Isiah with the President of Eritrea and who, exactly, is Angelina Jolie?
Author's Bio
Maaza Mengiste is a novelist and essayist who was born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. She is the recipient of fellowships from the Fulbright Scholar Program, the National Endowment for the Arts, and Creative Capital. Her debut novel, Beneath the Lion’s Gaze, was selected by the Guardian as one of the ten best contemporary African books and named one of the best books of 2010 by Christian Science Monitor, Boston Globe, and other publications. Her work can be found in the New Yorker, New York Review of Books, Granta, the Guardian, the New York Times, Rolling Stone, and BBC, among other places. She was a writer on the documentary projects Girl Rising and The Invisible City: Kakuma. Her second novel, The Shadow King, was published in September 2019.