Oromay
War, betrayal and espionage in 1980s Ethiopia: a classic of African literature that sealed its author's fate
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- £11.99
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- £11.99
Publisher Description
"Astonishing and compelling . . . Impossible to put down" Maaza Mengiste, author of The Shadow King
Ethiopia, 1982: After a decade of conflict, the government is determined to quash the Eritrean insurgency once and for all. As head of propaganda, it's Tsegaye's job to keep the people onside.
When the Red Star Campaign lands him in Asmara, Tsegaye is swept up in the city's nightlife, the bars and coffeehouses buzzing with spies and government agents. But even as Tsegaye begins to fall in love with Asmara ‒ and with bold, dazzling, enigmatic Fiammetta ‒ his misgivings about the campaign grow, and soon his loyalties will be tested to their limit.
Tsegaye is confronted with the horror of war when the army attacks the insurgents' mountain stronghold, and encounters betrayals that shake his faith in both the regime and human nature.
A masterpiece of Ethiopian literature, Oromay is a thrilling political satire and a turbulent tale of love and war. It became an instant sensation when first published in 1983 and was quickly banned. Baalu Girma vanished in 1984, most likely kidnapped and murdered by the same regime in retaliation for this novel.
Translated from Amharic by David DeGusta and Mesfin Felleke Yirgu
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Ethiopian writer Girma, who was born in 1939, makes his English-language debut with this gripping novel, which was originally published in 1983, a year before his disappearance. It's a fictionalized account of the Ethiopian government's anti-insurgent 1982 Red Star Campaign, centered on journalist Tsegaye Hailemaryam, who has just been appointed to lead the campaign's propaganda arm in Asmara. His role gives him access to higher-ups in the Provisional Military Administration Committee, who order him to produce glowing success stories rather than ones with dry facts. The assignment makes him increasingly anxious, and his fiancé grows worried, too, prompting him to ominously tell her, "I'm lost in a jungle called the Red Star Campaign." Meanwhile, Tsegaye has fallen in love with a mysterious local woman named Fiammetta, who seems to know more about the insurgency than she lets on. Girma's expert plotting reaches a tense and emotional climax when Tsegaye joins the front lines: "The carnage overwhelms my mind and my heart is filled with hatred for the vicious enemy." Readers will have a tough time putting this one down.
