The beautiful things that heaven bears

Title:

Author:

Mengestu, Dinaw, 1978- author.

Summary:

Seventeen years after fleeing the Ethiopian revolution, Sepha Stephanos runs a grocery store in a poor African-American neighborhood in Washington, D.C., where he reflects on his past and the differences between his prospects and the life he imagined.

General Note:

Reprint. Originally published: 2007.

Edition:

1st Riverhead Books trade pbk. ed.

Physical Description:

228 p. ; 21 cm.

Subject Term:

Race relations -- Fiction.

Immigrants -- Fiction.

African Americans -- Fiction

Geographic Term:

Washington (D.C.) -- Fiction

Publisher:

Riverhead Books,

Publication Date:

2008

2007

ISBN:

9781594482854

Publication Information:

New York : Riverhead Books, 2008, c2007.

Call Number:

MENGEST

Holds: Copies:

Available:*

Item Barcode	Collection	Call Number	Status	Item Holds
33607002360744	Adult Fiction	MENGEST	Searching... Unknown	Searching... Unavailable

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Summary

Seventeen years ago, Sepha Stephanos fled the Ethiopian Revolution for a new start in the United States. Now he finds himself running a failing grocery store in a poor African-American section of Washington, D.C., his only companions two fellow African immigrants who share his bitter nostalgia and longing for his home continent. Years ago and worlds away Sepha could never have imagined a life of such isolation. As his environment begins to change, hope comes in the form of a friendship with new neighbors Judith and Naomi, a white woman and her biracial daughter. But when a series of racial incidents disturbs the community, Sepha may lose everything all over again.

Watch a QuickTime interview with Dinaw Mengestu about this book.

Author Notes

Dinaw Mengestu was born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in 1978. In 1980, he, his mother, and his sister immigrated to the United States to join his father, who fled Ethiopia during the Red Terror. He graduated from Georgetown University and Columbia University's MFA program in fiction. He is the author of The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears and How to Read the Air. He has also written for several publications including Rolling Stone and Harper's.

(Bowker Author Biography)

Reviews (2)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Barely suppressed despair and black wit infuse this beautifully observed debut from Ethiopian ?migr? Mengestu. Set over eight months in a gentrifying Washington, D.C., neighborhood in the 1970s, it captures an uptick in Ethiopian grocery store owner Sepha Stephanos's long-deferred hopes, as Judith, a white academic, fixes up the four-story house next to his apartment building, treats him to dinner and lets him steal a kiss. Just as unexpected is Sepha's friendship with Judith's biracial 11-year-old daughter, Naomi (one of the book's most vivid characters), over a copy of The Brothers Karamazov. Mengestu adds chiaroscuro with the story of Stephanos's 17-year exile from his family and country following his father's murder by revolutionary soldiers. After long days in the dusty, barely profitable shop, Sepha's two friends, Joseph from Congo and Kenneth from Kenya, joke with Sepha about African dictators and gently mock his romantic aspirations, while the neighborhood's loaded racial politics hang over Sepha and Judith's burgeoning relationship like a sword of Damocles. The novel's dirge-like tone may put off readers looking for the next Kite Runner, but Mengestu's assured prose and haunting set pieces (especially a series of letters from Stephanos's uncle to Jimmy Carter, pleading that he respect "the deep friendship between our two countries") are heart-rending and indelible. (Feb.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Library Journal Review

After watching soldiers drag away his battered father, Sepha Stephanos flees the Ethiopian revolution, landing in a Washington, DC, neighborhood. Now gentrification threatens to displace him again. Ethiopian-born Mengestu starts out big. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.