Skip to main content

Maaza Mengiste

Biography

Maaza Mengiste

Maaza Mengiste was born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. A Fulbright Scholar and professor in the MFA in Creative Writing & Literary Translation program at Queens College, she is the author of THE SHADOW KING and BENEATH THE LION'S GAZE, named one of the Guardian’s Ten Best Contemporary African Books. Her work can be found in The New Yorker, Granta and the New York Times, among other publications. She lives in New York City.

Maaza Mengiste

Books by Maaza Mengiste

The Shadow King
by Maaza Mengiste - Fiction, Historical Fiction

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. Kidane, an officer in Emperor Haile Selassie’s army, rushes to mobilize his strongest men before the Italians invade. Hundreds of thousands of Italians --- Jewish photographer Ettore among them --- march on Ethiopia seeking adventure. When Emperor Haile Selassie goes into exile, Hirut helps disguise a gentle peasant as the emperor and soon becomes his guard, inspiring other women to take up arms against the Italians. But how could she have predicted her own personal war as a prisoner of one of Italy’s most vicious officers, who will force her to pose before Ettore’s camera?