Beneath the Lion's Gaze
A Novel
Maaza Mengiste (Author)
"An important novel, rich in compassion for its anguished characters."—The New York Times Book Review
This memorable, heartbreaking story opens in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia,
1974, on the eve of a revolution. Yonas kneels in his mother’s prayer
room, pleading to his god for an end to the violence that has wracked
his family and country. His father, Hailu, a prominent doctor, has been
ordered to report to jail after helping a victim of state-sanctioned
torture to die. And Dawit, Hailu’s youngest son, has joined an
underground resistance movement—a choice that will lead to more
upheaval and bloodshed across a ravaged Ethiopia.
Beneath the Lion’s Gaze
tells a gripping story of family, of the bonds of love and friendship
set in a time and place that has rarely been explored in fiction. It is
a story about the lengths human beings will go in pursuit of freedom
and the human price of a national revolution. Emotionally gripping,
poetic, and indelibly tragic, Beneath The Lion’s Gaze is a transcendent and powerful debut.
Book Details
- Paperback
- January 2011
-
ISBN 978-0-393-33888-1
- 5.5 × 8.2 in
/ 308 pages
- Territory Rights: Worldwide excluding Canada and the British Commonwealth.
Other Formats
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Hardcover
Endorsements & Reviews
“An extraordinary novel, which assembles a dauntingly broad cast of characters and, through them, tells stories that nobody can want to hear, in such a way that we cannot stop listening.” — Claire Messud, Bookforum
“Revolutionary Ethiopia in the seventies is the searing backdrop for Maaza Mengiste's incandescent debut . . . the acutely observed story of a family-a prominent doctor and his sons, one moderate, one mutinous—undone by war.” — Vogue
“The real marvel of this tender novel is its coiled plotting, in which coincidence manages to evoke the colossal emotional toll of the revolution.” — The New Yorker
“Mengiste gracefully builds the story to a heart-pumping conclusion. . . . Even with its share of tragedy, this is an absorbing drama . . . enhanced by the author's spare, spectacular prose.” — St. Louis Post-Dispatch
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