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#AboutAFictionalRoyal
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BarbaraBB
The Shadow King | Maaza Mengiste
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Panpan

I had a hard time with this difficult books about women in #Ethiopia at war against Italy in the 1930s. The characters (Hirut, Kidane and Aster) were introduced well but soon they became mere characters in ongoing descriptions of battles, sieges, and rape. In between we learned about Haile Selassi leaving his country in need, but even this part didn‘t really work for me.

#19822022 #2019 #Booked2022 #AboutAFictionalRoyal #ReadingAfrica2022 🇪🇹

Simona Ha! Your review reminded me that I have still in my TBR pile 2y
DGRachel She edited Addis Ababa Noir and I was…disappointed in that entire anthology and her short story. Your review confirms that I will not be picking up more of her work. 2y
squirrelbrain I tried to read this when it was on the Booker list, but hated it and bailed. 2y
See All 17 Comments
Cinfhen Me too @squirrelbrain !!! I bailed after a few hours of audio listening. I thought it had potential but it was requiring too much from me. Kudos to you, Barbara for sticking with it. 2y
Librarybelle That‘s a shame! 2y
Megabooks Skipping this one! Thanks! 2y
Daisey I listened to this one for FoodAndLit last year and also had a hard time with it. It was difficult content, and it didn‘t live up to the potential I thought it had in the beginning. 2y
BarbaraBB @Simona That will be much more interesting. I think Selassi was a fascinating man but I didn‘t learn much about him in this book! 2y
BarbaraBB @DGRachel @squirrelbrain @Cinfhen @Daisey I‘m glad I‘m not the only one struggling! 2y
BarbaraBB @Megabooks I would! 2y
StellaB I gave up on this too. 2y
BarbaraBB @StellaB If I had known so many people had bailed I wouldn‘t have picked it up! 2y
StellaB I didn‘t get far enough to even put it on here 🙂 2y
BarbaraTheBibliophage Books about battles are just 😫 and then to add rape on top of it … I just can‘t. Extra kudos to you for prevailing! 2y
Cinfhen Where is the photo taken ??? So cool 🐑 2y
BarbaraBB @Cinfhen In the dunes near the beach, about 20 kilometers from where I live! I had been walking along the beach when I came upon them! 2y
Suet624 How have I missed so many of your posts? Grrr… 2y
79 likes17 comments