THE SHADOW KING

• Main Author: Mengiste, Maaza (Author)
• Format: Book
• Language: English
• Published: Edinburgh, United Kingdom Canongate Books 2019
• Subjects: Itali-Ethiopian War, 1935-1936 > Fiction
• Online Access: Click Here to View Status and Holdings.
• Item Description: Shortlisted The 2020 Booker Prize
• Physical Description: 428pages 20x13cm
• ISBN: 9781838851170

DEVASTATING' Marlon James, 'BRILLIANT' Salman Rushdie, 'MAGNIFICENT' Aminatta Forna, 'WONDERFUL' Laila Lalami, 'UNFORGETTABLE' The Times, 'REMARKABLE' New York Times Ethiopia, 1935. With the threat of Mussolini's army looming, recently orphaned Hirut struggles to adapt to her new life as a maid. Her new employer, Kidane, an officer in Emperor Haile Selassie's army, rushes to mobilise his strongest men before the Italians invade. Hirut and the other women long to do more than care for the wounded and bury the dead. When Emperor Haile Selassie goes into exile and Ethiopia quickly loses hope, it is Hirut who offers a plan to maintain morale. She helps disguise a gentle peasant as the emperor and soon becomes his guard, inspiring other women to take up arms. But how could she have predicted her own personal war, still to come, as a prisoner of one of Italy's most vicious officers? The Shadow King is a gorgeously crafted and unputdownable exploration of female power, and what it means to be a woman at war.