First published 2021
Hirut lives in Ethiopia when Mussolini's forces invade in 1935. The Italian fascist regime brings the same brutal violence they share with their Nazi allies. Hirut joins the resistance against the occupation, but she faces violence from multiple directions. Her own society subjects women to forced marriages, normalized sexual violence within marriage, and unquestioned servitude. The patriarchal system treats women as expendable as the fascist invaders do. Hirut tells the Italian soldier Ettore that the voices of the dead grow louder, demanding to be heard, remembered, and known. Her words unleash a flood of memories from a war without glory or traditional heroes. This story rejects the glorification of violence while honoring those who suffered through occupation and oppression. The novel reveals how women bore the weight of both foreign invasion and domestic subjugation in a conflict that left deep wounds on individuals and the nation.
Genres: historical-fiction, 20th-century, african-literature, war
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, found-family
Setting: Ethiopia, Italy
Period: 1935
448 pages · Paperback · Galaxia Gutenberg
Content warnings: abuse, sexual-assault, violence