- Title:
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The Shadow King
- Written by:
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Maaza Mengiste
- Read by:
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Robin Miles
- Format:
-
Unabridged CD Audio Book
- Number of CDs:
-
14
- Duration:
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16 hours 12 minutes
- Published:
-
June 01 2020
- Available Date:
-
June 01 2020
- Age Category:
-
Adult
- ISBN:
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9780655670223
- Genres:
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Fiction; Fantasy Fiction
- Publisher:
-
Bolinda/Canongate audio
Qty
Format
Price
Bolinda price
With the threat of Mussolini's army looming, recently orphaned Hirut struggles to adapt to her new life as a maid in Kidane and his wife Aster's household.
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.
'The Shadow King is incredible. I’ve read nothing like it before. There is war, love, betrayal, history and the present day wrapped in the hearts and minds of complex characters. Maaza Mengiste rises as Toni Morrison rests. The baton has been passed and taken deftly.'
Lemn Sissay
'Lyrical, remarkable … Breathtakingly skillful … Hirut [is] as indelible and compelling a hero as any I’ve read in years.'
New York Times