![]() ![]() Sometimes notes were pinned to their clothes: "I am an enemy of the people. ![]() It begins on an operating table, where Hailu is trying to patch up a young protester shot by the emperor's police later, after the emperor has fallen, a teenager will be brought to him, so badly tortured that he risks his life to help her a major strand of plot involves Dawit collecting the dead bodies abandoned each night on the roadsides, for the hyenas to eat. Partly this is because she has made the wise decision not to step back too much, explaining factions, ideologies, geopolitics, but instead steps in: this is a book anchored to the body, vivid with smells and fears and violations. Mengiste tells her story through one family – a doctor, Hailu, his two sons Dawit and Yonas, their partners and friends and domestic staff – and, confidently, economically, makes the reader care for them. ![]() ![]() (The name also echoes that of Queen Gudit, whose monastery-burning rampages of around AD960 ushered in Ethiopia's dark ages.) Guddu means "the extraordinary things he wrought" – and in this context it isn't a compliment. The emperor keeps his name, but Colonel Mengistu Haile Mariam becomes Major Guddu – an interesting choice for anyone who speaks Amharic. ![]()
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