First published 2011
Jonas stands before his part-time students at a predominantly white school, his dark skin drawing questioning stares when he insists he is simply American. At thirty, he refuses any connection to Ethiopia, the homeland his parents fled. His father Yosef had arrived in the 1970s after a brutal ocean crossing, hidden inside an animal crate. Three years later, his mother Mariam joined him, only to discover that her husband had become a hollow version of himself. The man she once knew now sat alone in his car before entering their home, slept secretly on the couch while crying out in his dreams, and could no longer share her bed. Trauma had broken something fundamental in Yosef, leaving him unable to rebuild happiness in their new country. As Jonas confronts his parents' painful journey toward safety and his father's invisible wounds, he begins to understand his own fractured relationship with his wife and his stubborn denial of his roots. In a nation still struggling to hear voices like his, Jonas must find a way to embrace both his American identity and his Ethiopian blood.
Genres: american-fiction, historical-fiction, family-drama, african-american-historical-fiction
Vibes: intimate, lyrical, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, identity
Setting: Ethiopia, United States
Period: 1970s
343 pages · Paperback · Piemme