A review by stanro
The Shadow King by Maaza Mengiste

challenging dark tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

I’m finding this book difficult to write about. Set in Ethiopia as the Italian war looms and then arrives, it initially centres on two women - Oster, the strong-willed wife of military leader Kidane, and Hirut , a strong-willed servant. It is about how they deal with the situation and each other. 

There’s war. That so-frequent war between a European coloniser employing western technology and the indigenous people defending their land, in this case the land of young Emperor Haile Selassie (himself a recurring character), with native weapons and antiquated European weapons in inadequate availability.  Yet forty years earlier, the Italians had been beaten off!

As Kidane determines his military actions and the Emperor departs his empire for Europe, we meet the Italian army and its local commander Carlo Fucelli - a Jewish Italian colonel dealing with another strong-willed woman, Fifi, an Ethiopian prostitute of great intelligence and beauty. Amongst Fucelli’s troops is another Jewish soldier Navarro, who is the photographer. Though perfectly set up to be the observer, this soldier, Navarro, becomes more than that. And being a Jew in Italy, where Navarro’s parents are, is becoming increasingly difficult. 

The setting is a rare one - certainly for this reader. The characters are well-drawn and the plot is well-constructed. 

A central purpose of the author, Maaza Mengiste, is to bring front and centre the role women played in the Ethiopian resistance to the Italian invaders. Some is based on what her great-grandmother actually did. 

Stylistically the book is interesting, with internalised and observed narratives, spotted with occasional changes of authorial flow headed “chorus” and “interlude.” 

Set in wartime, characters are confused, angry, scared, brutal and brutalised. That narrowed emotional range makes it tough reading at times. The book is well written and the audio is well narrated. So much is there, but it doesn’t quite satisfy me somehow #areadersjourney