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 racked his family and country. His father, a prominent doctor, has been ordered to report to jail after helping a victim of state-sanctioned torture to die. And his brother has joined an underground resistance movement – a choice that will lead to more upheaval and bloodshed across a ravaged Ethiopia.

Emotionally gripping, poetic, and moving, this is Maaza Mengiste’s powerful first novel about family and the bonds of love and friendship.