<i><blockquote>"Tell them, Hirut, we were the Shadow King. We were those who stepped into a country left dark by an invading plague and gave new hope to Ethiopia's people."</blockquote></i>
<img src="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EFOseYwW4AAEhsU?format=jpg&name=medium"/>

The writing in <b>The Shadow King</b> is glorious. Mostly set around the second Italo-Ethiopian War, it exemplifies the courage of the women who served Ethiopia with steadfast honor. A story that is so rarely told, it was in part inspired by Mengiste's own great grandmother. As the eldest child in her family she volunteered herself to go to war. But as a young girl in 1930s Ethiopia she was not seen as fit for war, but for marriage. Her father gave his own gun to her older husband and asked him to represent the family instead. But she was headstrong and not easily deterred. She sued for ownership of the gun and won. As she went off to war she loudly proclaimed the might of the Ethiopian army. It is her spirit that lives on in the character Hirut. Although the book is told from multiple perspectives, includes a full Greek chorus and gives the reader snapshots of Emperor Haile Selassie's movements and deliberations, I was drawn to these women's strength, fortitude and grace under pressure. I found myself thoroughly taken away by the writing and story alike. <b>The Shadow King</b> is a powerful and moving tribute to Mengiste's homeland and the women that gave all of themselves.

<i>Special thanks to NetGalley, W.W. Norton & Company and Maaza Mengiste for access to this book.</i>

A war and a culture that many Americans do not know are shown in this Ethiopian novel. The solderi, or women fighters, bring an entirely different dynamic to armed conflict. The topic is more engaging than the actual writing, however. The book moves very slowly, and the characters are not distinctive enough to keep them from running together in a reader’s mind. Sadly, this one just didn’t live up to my hopes and expectations.

I was really excited about this book and I'm afraid my expectations were too high. I appreciated the look into an overlooked piece of history and the writing was incredibly beautiful in places. But other than the battle scenes, the pace was too slow to maintain my interest. The point of view also shifted too often, sometimes several times within one paragraph, which was hard to follow. Ultimately, I thought this story was beautiful and I deeply cared for the main character, but the themes could have been drawn out in more depth.

I was so excited when I saw that Maaza Mengiste’s new novel was coming out this year! After devouring Beneath The Lion’s Gaze last year, and falling in love with the beautiful writing, I was really excited to jump into The Shadow King. And The Shadow King broke my heart just as much as Beneath The Lion’s Gaze did… If not more. Maaza Mengiste is both poet and storyteller, and in my opinion her words should be read by all. The historical fiction market is literally saturated with the same overdone WW2 stories when there are so many stories from that era that have yet to be told – The Shadow King is one of them.

Set in the mid 1935’s in Ethiopia, The Shadow King is the story of Mussolini’s army’s advance into Ethiopia with the aim to stamp out the image of their previous failure and colonize the country. Told through the eyes of Kidane, an officer in Emperor Haile Selassi’s army, his wife Aster who rises above all of the disappointments and pain in her life to lead a group of women into war, and Hirut, their servant, who rises above both of them as a guerilla, free and then captured again. It is also the story of terrible cruelties (on both sides), but also the immense power of women. I fell in love with Hirut, and I think she will remain one of my favorite fictional characters forever (right up there with Jacqueline from Marge Piercy’s Gone To Soldiers).

The Shadow King has so many layers, and jumps between voices and times, but in a manner that is fluid, and not confusing for the reader. I loved how the author uses memories based on photographs to tell parts of the story that cannot be told from Kidane, Aster, or Hirut’s perspective. It rounds out the narrative perfectly, and allows the reader to have a larger perspective on the war, the country, and the emperor, and the time. I wasn’t expecting to burn through this novel rapidly, as Maaza Mengiste’s writing demands one absorb her words, and sit awhile in her imagery, so I was perfectly happy to take my time with this one. I would have happily spent another 400 pages swimming through her words, spending time in Hirut’s presence and learning more about a country I have never visited, and that I still know too little about.

Is it too much to ask when the next book will be available? (I’m just kidding, but not really. Thank you Maaza Mengiste for your incredible work!).

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the advance copy in return for my honest review.

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.

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

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.

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.