The Anglo-Ethiopian Society
Book Club - ONLINE - Addis Ababa Noir
Edited by Maaza Mengiste
Thursday 19th November 2020
Online event starting at 19:00 BST - Public lecture (all welcome to join).
Note - Register for the event on Eventbrite and you'll be emailed a Zoom link shortly before the event.
The Anglo-Ethiopian Society's book club will discuss Akashic Books new noir anthology, Addis Ababa Noir, edited by Maaza Mengiste.
Brand-new stories by: Maaza Mengiste, Adam Reta, Mahtem Shiferraw, Linda Yohannes, Sulaiman Addonia, Meron Hadero, Mikael Awake, Lelissa Girma, Rebecca Fisseha, Solomon Hailemariam, Girma T. Fantaye, Teferi Nigussie Tafa, Hannah Giorgis, and Bewketu Seyoum.
From the introduction by Maaza Mengiste:
What marks life in Addis Ababa are the starkly different realities coexisting in one place. It’s a growing city taking shape beneath the fraught weight of history, myth, and memory. It is a heady mix. It can also be disorienting, and it is in this space that the stories of Addis Ababa Noir reside . . .
These are not gentle stories. They cross into forbidden territories and traverse the damaged terrain of the human heart. The characters in these pages are complicated, worthy of our judgment as much as they somehow manage to elude it. The writers have each discovered their own ways to get us to lean in while forcing us to grit our teeth as we draw closer . . .
Despite the varied and distinct voices in these pages, no single book can contain all of the wonderful, intriguing, vexing complexities of Addis Ababa. But what you will read are stories by some of Ethiopia’s most talented writers living in the country and abroad. Each of them considers the many ways that myth and truth and a country’s dark edges come together to create something wholly original—and unsettling.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Part I: Past Hauntings
- Kind Stranger by Meron Hadero (Lideta)
- A Double-Edged Inheritance by Hannah Giorgis (Shiromeda)
- Ostrich by Rebecca Fisseha (National Palace)
- Dust, Ash, Flight by Maaza Mengiste (Mercato)
Part II: Translations of Grief
- Father Bread by Mikael Awake (Kechené)
- The Blue Shadow by Mahtem Shiferraw (Yerer Ber)
- A Night in Bela Sefer by Sulaiman Addonia (Bela Sefer)
Part III: Madness Descends
- Insomnia by Lelissa Girma (Haya Hulet)
- Of the Poet and the Café by Girma T. Fantaye (Beherawi Theater)
- Under the Minibus Ceiling by Bewketu Seyoum (Arat Kilo)
- Of Buns and Howls by Adam Reta (Addis Ababa West)
Part IV: Police and Thieves
- Kebele ID by Linda Yohannes (CMC)
- None of Your Business by Solomon Hailemariam (French Legation)
- Agony of the Congested Heart by Teferi Nigussie Tafa (Meskel Square)
Book a place using Eventbrite in order to be sent a link to the session. More registration details are on the Eventbrite page.
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Addis Ababa Noir edited by Maaza Mengiste. Publisher : Akashic Books, August 2020 ISBN : 9781617758201 (paperback) UK RRP £12:97 |