"The Shadow King" by Maaza Mengiste

 Shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2020.

Written in the present tense. The bulk of the narrative set during the invasion of Ethiopia by Italian troops in 1935 but framed by a related narrative set in 1974, when Haile Selassie, who had spent five years in exile between 1936 and 1941, was finally overthrown. Aside from this framing the story is sequenced in chronological order. The story is told by multiple narrators, both Ethiopians and Italians.

Protagonist Hirut is servant to Aster, wife of local landowner Kidane. When Kidane leaves to join the army fighting the invading Italians, Aster and Hirut accompany him and train up a fighting force of women. After being defeated in battle, they form a guerrilla resistance in the mountains. To encourage the local people to support them they dress a peasant called Minim (which means Nothing) as the (shadow) Emperor, fostering a legend that Haile Selassie has returned from exile to lead his troops.  Their main enemy is a force led by Carlo Fucelli, the antagonist, an evil man who throws prisoners over a precipice to their death, having these executions photographed by 'Foto', Ettore, an Italian of Jewish descent. Fucelli's mistress, an Ethiopian named Fifi, acts as a spy for the guerrillas. After a skirmish, Aster and Hirut are captured by the Italians.

One of the intriguing characters is 'the cook', a woman who deliberately refuse to be named, who has been a servant of Aster's from before her marriage, and who becomes a servant of Fifi.

There are some beautifully lyrical passages in the book. It is divided into many small unnumbered chapters. It takes time to explore the characters and the situations. As well as the sections narrated by one of the characters, there are sections narrated by the 'chorus' and there are sections which describe a photograph.

The characters are carefully crafted with all their complexities. Carlo, the Italian devil, has paternal feelings towards Ettore who is threatened because of his Jewish ancestry; Carlo the commander has terrors; he is fond of Fifi though he must suspect her treachery. Ettore, complicit in the terror, photographing the victims. Hirut, a stubborn servant and a thief; Aster, almost hysterical and jealous as Kidane's wife, from whom Hirut steals and with whom she shares imprisonment. 

Some of my favourite moments

• "She is in that small box of a room that Hirut shares with the cook, that place where they go at night to shed their usefulness and sleep." (p 11)
• "You still think this world was built around you? she asks. You were born to fit into it. That's your fate." (p 41)
• "They have done their best to hide from those glinting large windows as frightening as the open eyes of Satan." (p 94)
• "If you turn to your side during battle, Aklilu told her, if you look at just the right time, you'll see angels running beside you, flicking bullets away with their wings." (p 394)
• "There are those born to own things, and those brought forth to keep those things in their rightful place." (p 417)

It's not a page turner or a thriller. It took me a long time to read and I sometimes found it heavy going. But it is beautifully crafted. January 2021; 426 pages

The writer of this review, Dave Appleby, 
is author of the novel Motherdarling