The Shadow King

A visceral war story about a war few Americans know much about. Set mainly in 1935 during the Second Italo-Ethiopian War, this book follows Hirut, an abused servant, as she becomes a guerilla soldier and is captured by a cruel Italian colonel. I found this book very affecting for its language and dreamlike tone.

Mengiste's novel reveals a hidden history of women's role in Ethiopia's defense against the invasion of Italy in the 1930s. Women not only cooked & cleaned for men, but also bore arms. The story is told through different voices and points of view, and points of time. Although about war & violence, Mengiste's writing is lyrical and beautiful.

Mazza Mengiste has written a layered, absorbing, sometimes shocking piece of historical fiction set in Ethiopia during the Italian invasion just before WW2.

To put this simply, The Shadow King, is a really well written book that explores the history of the war that took place between Ethiopia and Italy in the 1930s. It tells the story of the women who fought the war, the challenges they faced, the struggle of the Ethiopian people during that time and the Italian colonel who forced innocent people off a cliff. The story begins at the end with Hirut in the 1970s waiting to meet Ettore. She has something that belongs to him and he has been looking for her for decades. But how they got to this meeting, begins when the war does with Hirut a young woman, with her father’s rifle and Ettore, an Italian Jew photographing both the living and dead as he served in the army.

One of the parts of this book that really sticks with me is the imagery. Mengiste writes the most beautiful, heartbreaking, descriptive imagery and her prose lends itself to building images in a really amazing way. Certain phrases simply linger in your mind while you envision what’s happening. That’s what really pulled me into this story. The world building was just incredible. The opposing narratives was also something I really found fascinating. Hirut and Ettore’s narrative were so intrinsically different but the thread of war bound them together. But war is brutal and at moments so is this book as Mengiste creates a realistic atmosphere for what war in the 1930s would consist of.

I will say that it did take me a little while to get use to how Mengiste chose to write this book. The page looks monotonous and I didn’t realize how much I rely on just basic quotations to denounce speech. In this book there are moments when you aren’t sure when the conversation is happening but you gain a better awareness for her style overtime. I really enjoyed this book. It was an informative and interesting story with well written characters. Unaware of this section of history, I definitely learned quite a bit and would love to learn more. Definitely recommending this novel. I’m very interested in what Mengiste has to offer moving forward.