Beneath the Lion's Gaze

Magers & Quinn is pleased to bring an exciting young talent to the Twin Cities. At 5:00pm, Sunday, January 24, Maaza Mengiste will read from her novel Beneath the Lion’s Gaze.

This memorable heartbreaking story opens in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 1974, on the eve of a revolution. Yonas kneels in his mother’s prayer room, pleading to his god for an end to the violence that has wracked his family and country. His father, Hailu, a prominent doctor, has been ordered to report to jail after helping a victim of state-sanctioned torture to die. And Dawit, Hailu’s youngest son, has joined an underground resistance movement--a choice that will lead to more upheaval and bloodshed across a ravaged Ethiopia.

Read an excerpt at www.maazamengiste.com.

“Beneath the Lion’s Gaze is an extraordinary novel, which assembles a dauntingly broad cast of characters and, through them, tells stories that nobody can want to hear, in such a way that we cannot stop listening. Although set more than thirty years ago, Mengiste's novel is timely and vital: Its illumination of a world unfamiliar to most Americans shows us how individuals will fight to retain their humanity in the face of atrocity.”--Claire Messud, BookForum

Details on this event are here.--David E