Canongate snaps up 'compulsively readable' second novel by Mengiste

Canongate has snapped up a “compulsively readable” second novel by Ethiopian-American author Maaza Mengiste.

Commissioning editor Jo Dingley has acquired UK and Commonwealth rights, including audio to The Shadow King from Cullen Stanley at Cullen Stanley International on behalf of Lynn Nesbit of Janklow & Nesbit Associates.

According to the synopsis: “Set in Ethiopia at the very start of WWII, The Shadow King tells the story of orphaned young woman Hirut, who struggles to adapt to her new life as a maid. Her new employer, an officer in Emperor Haile Selassie’s army, rushes to mobilise his strongest men before the Italians invade.

“As the war begins in earnest, Hirut and the other women long to do more than care for the wounded and bury the dead. When the Emperor goes into exile and Ethiopia quickly loses hope, it is Hirut who offers a plan to maintain morale. She helps disguise a gentle peasant as the emperor and soon becomes his guard, inspiring other women to take up arms. But how could she have predicted her own personal war, still to come, as a prisoner of one of Italy’s most vicious officers?”

Dingley said: “The Shadow King is stunning on every level – each sentence is beautiful, the voices of Maaza’s extraordinary characters sing from every page, and the story is one of incredible female strength. From the very first page it’s easy to see why Maaza has already received such high praise she has for this novel. She’s a marvel.”

Mengiste added: “What would war look like from a woman’s perspective? How can I convey the myths, gaps and biases inherent in every historical narrative? The Shadow King tells the story of a young Ethiopian girl who goes to war, yes, but it also tells the stories of those who were on the other side of the battle line. This book grew from a series of questions I asked about history and memory. Some of it is set in England and this makes its UK publication with the great team at Canongate an absolute honour and thrill.”

In an endorsement, Salman Rushdie said: “A brilliant novel, lyrically lifting history towards myth. It’s also compulsively readable. I devoured it in two days.”

Mengiste’s first novel Beneath the Lion’s Gaze was published in the UK by Vintage in 2011. The New York Times, the Guardian, Rolling Stone and the BBC have published Mengiste’s essays and writing.