memoir

Dear Senthuran

Featured on the cover of Time Magazine as a 2021 next generation leader

In critically acclaimed novels, Akwaeke Emezi has introduced readers to a landscape marked by familial tensions, native belief systems, and a boundless search for what it means to be free. Now, in this extraordinary memoir, the bestselling author of The Death of Vivek Oji (view on Amazon) reveals the harrowing yet resolute truths of their own life. Through candid, intimate correspondence with friends, lovers, and family, Emezi traces the unfolding of a self and the unforgettable journey of a creative spirit stepping into power in the human world. Their story weaves through transformative decisions about their gender and body, their precipitous path to success as a writer, and the turmoil of relationships on an emotional, romantic, and spiritual plane, culminating in a book that is as tender as it is brutal.

Electrifying and inspiring, animated by the same voracious intelligence that distinguishes their fiction, Dear Senthuran is a revelatory account of storytelling, self, and survival.

“A once-in-a-generation voice.” —Vulture

“One of our greatest living writers.” —Shondaland

“A thing of great beauty . . . Dear Senthuran is about powerful excellence, especially the excellence that appears in bodies that aren’t white and aren’t male. Emezi is changing the world and our reaction to this kind of power.” —The Paris Review

“An audacious sojourn through the terror and beauty of refusing to explain yourself.” —New York Times Book Review

“The brilliant Akwaeke Emezi candidly shares their reflections on gender, embodiment, queerness, creativity and relationships with the same fierce dedication and candor that defines their bestselling novels.” —Ms. Magazine

(A special thank you to book club member, Heather Purcell for the suggestion.)

Note: Great on audio—read by the author herself!

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My Persian Paradox

On a cold night in 1978, seven-year-old Shabnam Shahmohammad clung to her mother in a Tehran apartment while the sounds of gunshots rang out in the street: The Iranian Revolution was at hand. She and her family survived that night, but as the Islamic fundamentalists took the power over, she grew up watching her father take his beloved books away to burn, his friends be arrested and disappear, and women like her mother grow ever more marginalized. Confused by her father’s communist ideology, her mother’s conservative religious beliefs, and the regime’s oppressive rules, she developed a deep longing to live a different life.

Finding herself being married at 19, she naively dreamed to team up and discover an adventurous life. When she gave birth to a daughter whose future, she realized, mattered more to her than her own, she had to find a way to unlock her little girl’s possibilities. She longed to emigrate, but with Western countries’ embassies mostly absent from Tehran, options for escaping Iran were limited.

My Persian Paradox is a tale of resilience facing oppression and dictatorship along with fighting with narrow traditional and restrictive cultural rules. This memoir is a journey of self-discovery, mother-daughter relationship obstacles, forbidden love, and the universal desire for freedom.

”The difference between Shabnam's choices and those of many Iranian women lies in her determination to realize her dreams against all odds: dreams that evolve into a bid for freedom under impossible circumstances … Shabnam's survey of past and present ideals and their impact on her ability to assimilate makes for an engrossing survey that goes beyond most immigrant stories.” —Midwest Book Review

(Group read suggestion from Gemma Ware, book club moderator.)

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Prisoner of Tehran

In her heartbreaking, triumphant, and elegantly written memoir, Marina Nemat tells the heart-pounding story of her life as a young girl in Iran during the early days of the brutal Islamic Revolution.

What would you give up to protect your loved ones? Your life?

In January 1982, Marina Nemat, then just 16, was arrested, tortured, and sentenced to death for political crimes. Until then, her life in Tehran had centered around school, summer parties at the lake, and her crush on Andre, the young man she had met at church. But when math and history were subordinated to the study of the Koran and political propaganda, Marina protested. Her teacher replied, “If you don't like it, leave.” She did, and, to her surprise, other students followed.

Soon she was arrested with hundreds of other youths who had dared to speak out, and they were taken to the notorious Evin prison in Tehran. Two guards interrogated her. One beat her into unconsciousness; the other, Ali, fell in love with her.

Sentenced to death for refusing to give up the names of her friends, she was minutes from being executed when Ali, using his family connections to Ayatollah Khomeini, plucked her from the firing squad and had her sentence reduced to life in prison. But he exacted a shocking price—with a dizzying combination of terror and tenderness, he asked her to marry him and abandon her Christian faith for Islam. If she didn't, he would see to it that her family was harmed. She spent the next two years as a prisoner of the state, and of the man who held her life, and her family's lives, in his hands.

Lyrical, passionate, and suffused throughout with grace and sensitivity, Marina Nemat's memoir is like no other. Her search for emotional redemption envelops her jailers, her husband and his family, and the country of her birth—each of whom she grants the greatest gift of all: forgiveness.

“Nemat's engaging memoir is rich with complex characters...[she] offers her arresting, heartbreaking story of forgiveness, hope and enduring love—a voice for the untold scores silenced by Iran's revolution.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review

(Group read suggestion from Beth McCrea, book club co-founder.)

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Path to Freedom

A multi award-winning, historically-accurate memoir which the Smithsonian displays in its Anacostia Museum Library

Little about Conrad Taylor's upbringing in a remote mining town deep in the impenetrable tropical rain forests of Guyana prepared him for West Point. An extraordinary opportunity for most, attending the highly-regimented United States Military Academy was a life-changer for him. Enduring culture shock, navigating rude awakenings, and surviving the rigorous West Point experience hardened Taylor for return to a Guyanese government which had become a dictatorship overnight. Paranoid about regime change and now anti-American, leaders of the dictatorship were fearful the young graduate had become a spy for the United States.

With authentic samples of Guyanese life both before and after West Point alongside a vivid description of his time at the military academy, Taylor’s book chronicles the hardships he faced and the eventual epic journey to freedom that he made back to the US. The narrative charts a sometimes-humorous journey of resilience, hope, survival, and love. Its revelations will be nostalgic for some, shocking to many, and enlightening for others.

“Conrad Taylor's captivating memoir is an extremely interesting read, thanks to Taylor's talent for illustrating his life's journey in such a fascinating way. Difficult to put down until the end. For those looking to be inspired, as well as broaden their knowledge about Guyana and Third World political affairs, this commendable memoir is highly recommended.” —Lit Amri

(Group read suggestion from Beth McCrea, book club co-founder.)

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Walk Wit’ Me

There is a saying that most Guyanese use to identify their roots after they have voluntarily immigrated or simply fled to another country: “My navel string is buried in Guyana” meaning my roots are there. It’s a place where true and enduring friendships were formed forever. Guyanese will meet one another decades later and feel as if it was yesterday, reminiscing about their beloved land; lapsing into the language only a fellow Guyanese can understand.

Before immigrating to Australia, Helena believed the sun only rose and set in Guyana. She never imagined another paradise existed on the planet.

Helena’s memoir is laced with nostalgia and, at the same time, it is her sincere intention to portray the true essence of the Guyanese culture. This is not only an account of her first 21 years of life in Guyana, it also contains anecdotes of visits back to her homeland alongside a sprinkling about her new life in Australia.

“What an eye opener! Written by a Guyanese of working-class Portuguese extraction, [this book teaches] so much about the social setting and economics of a much-neglected and rarely-written-about group of Guyanese. Often, these stories are told orally and then lost. Helena has written them with great detail and humour. Highly recommended.” —Eva James

Note: The use of colloquialism is of utmost importance to the local culture—it is the vernacular Guyanese understand. The included glossary at the back is helpful for understanding local phrases and sayings which may not be clear to some.

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I Will Never See the World Again

Best Book of the Year – Bloomberg News

A resilient Turkish writer’s inspiring account of his imprisonment that provides crucial insight into political censorship amidst the global rise of authoritarianism.

The destiny I put down in my novel has become mine. I am now under arrest like the hero I created years ago. I await the decision that will determine my future, just as he awaited his. I am unaware of my destiny, which has perhaps already been decided, just as he was unaware of his. I suffer the pathetic torment of profound helplessness, just as he did.

Like a cursed oracle, I foresaw my future years ago not knowing that it was my own.

Confined in a cell four meters long, imprisoned on absurd, Kafkaesque charges, novelist Ahmet Altan is one of many writers persecuted by Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s oppressive regime. In this extraordinary memoir, written from his prison cell, Altan reflects upon his sentence, on a life whittled down to a courtyard covered by bars, and on the hope and solace a writer’s mind can provide, even in the darkest places.

“Urgent…brilliant…a timeless testament to the art and power of writing amid Orwellian repression.” —Washington Post

“Remarkable…Altan’s talent allowed him to communicate his experience in rich, haunting detail…Despite the oppressive, cruel darkness at the core of Altan’s memoir, his words shine like bioluminescent creatures patrolling the abyss…brilliant.” —NPR

“The title of Mr. Altan’s book is the statement of a brutal fact, rather than a cry of despair. There is not a smidgen of self-pity in the memoir’s 212 pages. What emerges is this: You cannot jail my mind, and you cannot shut me up.” —New York Times

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Fall Down 7 Times Get Up 8

Naoki Higashida was only thirteen when he wrote The Reason I Jump (view on Amazon), a revelatory account of autism from the inside by a nonverbal Japanese child, which became an international success. Now, in Fall Down 7 Times Get Up 8, he shares his thoughts and experiences as a young man living each day with severe autism. In short, powerful chapters, Higashida explores school memories, family relationships, the exhilaration of travel, and the difficulties of speech. He also allows readers to experience profound moments we take for granted, like the thought-steps necessary for him to register that it’s raining outside. Acutely aware of how strange his behavior can appear to others, he aims throughout to foster a better understanding of autism and to encourage society to see people with disabilities as people, not as problems.

With an introduction by the bestselling novelist David Mitchell, Fall Down 7 Times Get Up 8 also includes a dreamlike short story Higashida wrote especially for the U.S. edition. Both moving and of practical use, this book opens a window into the mind of an inspiring young man who meets every challenge with tenacity and good humor. However often he falls down, he always gets back up.

“[Naoki Higashida’s] success as a writer now transcends his diagnosis. . . . His relative isolation—with words as his primary connection to the outside world—has allowed him to fully develop the powers of observation that are necessary for good writing, and he has developed rich, deep perspectives on ideas that many take for granted. . . . The diversity of Higashida’s writing, in both subject and style, fits together like a jigsaw puzzle of life put in place with humor and thoughtfulness.” —The Japan Times

“Profound insights about what the struggle of living with autism is really like . . . the invitation to step inside Higashida’s mind is irresistible.” —London Evening Standard

“Naoki Higashida’s lyrical and heartfelt account of his condition is a gift to anyone involved with the same challenges…Higashida shows a delicate regard for the difficulties his condition creates…and is adept at explaining his experiences in language that makes sense to neurotypicals.” —The Guardian

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Last Night I Dreamed of Peace

Rich in detail, this posthumously published diary of a twenty-seven-year-old Vietcong woman doctor gives us fresh insight into the lives of those fighting on the other side of the Vietnam War.

Saved from destruction by an American soldier and then published in Vietnam 35 years later, Trâm’s wartime diaries chronicle the last two years of her life as an idealistic young North Vietnamese battlefield surgeon. Last Night I Dreamed of Peace is a story of the struggle for one’s ideals amid the despair and grief of war, but most of all, it is a story of hope in the most dire circumstances.

”Urgent, simple prose that pierces the heart.” —Kirkus Reviews

“Remarkable. . . A gift from a heroine who was killed at 27, but whose voice has survived to remind us of the humanity and decency that endure amid—and despite—the horror and chaos of war.” —O, The Oprah Magazine

“Faithfully translated by Pulitzer Prize-winning Vietnamese American journalist Pham, Last Night I Dreamed of Peace is witness to the tragedy of war, a reminder made more pertinent every day. A book of hope to be read by all.” —The Bloombury Review

(Group read suggestion from Beth McCrea, book club co-founder.)

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The Unwanted

Saigon fell to the Viet Cong on April 30, 1975. Kien Nguyen watched the last U.S. Army helicopter leave without him, without his brother, without his mother, without his grandparents. Left to a nightmarish existence in a violated and decimated country, Kien was more at risk than most because of his odd blond hair and his light eyes—because he was Amerasian.

He was the most unwanted.

Told with stark and poetic brilliance, this is a story of survival and hope, a moving and personal record of a tumultuous and important piece of history. The Unwanted is the only memoir by an Amerasian who stayed behind in Vietnam after the fall of Saigon and who is now living in America.

“A remarkable tale of survival at all costs.” —People

“The son of a wealthy Vietnamese woman and an American businessman, Nguyen was nearly eight when Saigon fell to the Vietcong. For the next decade, he and his family endured hardships brought on by the privileged lives they had previously enjoyed. Nguyen is adept at capturing both the broad sweep of life under the Vietcong and the peculiarities of growing up in a colorful and emotionally dysfunctional family during a jarring and vicious revolution. But perhaps the most engaging aspect of his memoir is its portrayal of the ironies that ensue when the old order collapses and the social hierarchy is turned upside down.” —Publisher’s Weekly

Trigger warning: Rape, sexual violence, & the killing of a dog.

(A special thank you to book club member, Beth Cummings for the suggestion.)

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Poppies of Iraq

Nominated for the Kirkus Prize & YALSA's Great Graphic Novels. Appeared on best of the year lists from Kirkus, Guardian, Vulture, Forbes, and more.

Poppies of Iraq is Brigitte Findakly’s nuanced tender chronicle of her relationship with her homeland Iraq, co-written and drawn by her husband, the acclaimed cartoonist Lewis Trondheim. In spare and elegant detail, they share memories of her middle class childhood touching on cultural practices, the education system, Saddam Hussein’s state control, and her family’s history as Orthodox Christians in the Arab world. 

Poppies of Iraq is intimate and wide-ranging; the story of how one can become separated from one’s homeland and still feel intimately connected yet ultimately estranged.

Signs of an oppressive regime permeate a seemingly normal life: magazines arrive edited by customs; the color red is banned after the execution of General Kassim; Baathist militiamen are publicly hanged and school kids are bussed past them to bear witness. As conditions in Mosul worsen over her childhood, Brigitte’s father is always hopeful that life in Iraq will return to being secular and prosperous. The family eventually feels compelled to move to Paris, however, where Brigitte finds herself not quite belonging to either culture. Trondheim brings to life Findakly’s memories to create a poignant family portrait that covers loss, tragedy, love, and the loneliness of exile.

“What is it like to grow up in Iraq? That’s the question at the heart of Poppies of Iraq... a beautifully drawn graphic novel that shows how growing up in Iraq is more complicated than it seems." —Bitch Magazine

“Poignant and powerful... a meditation on the ache and longing for a place you can no longer return.” —Boston Globe

"Small in size but large in impact, this intimate memoir is a highly relevant and compassionate story of family, community, prejudice, and the struggle to love when the forces of the world push groups apart."—Kirkus

“[Poppies of Iraq's] power lies in the contrast between the matter-of-fact nature of the text and visuals, and the dread and horror of the backdrop... there is also hope to be found here — the hope that, no matter what befalls a nation, there will always be individuals who can craft something beautiful by virtue of their survival.” —Vulture

"This absorbing graphic memoir offers an insider’s view of the rapid cultural changes that beset Iraq in the latter half of the 20th century... Short vignettes about her family, school, and local customs are alternately bittersweet, funny, and affecting as a series of military and political coups impact her family’s life in Iraq... A moving, thought-provoking title for all collections."—School Library Journal, Starred Review

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The Wall

A NY Times Bestseller & multi award-winning book

”I was born at the beginning of it all, on the Red side—the Communist side—of the Iron Curtain." Through annotated illustrations, journals, maps, and dreamscapes, Peter Sís shows what life was like for a child who loved to draw, proudly wore the red scarf of a Young Pioneer [a youth Marxist-Leninist organization in communist Czechoslovakia], stood guard at the giant statue of Stalin, and believed whatever he was told to believe. But adolescence brought questions. Cracks began to appear in the Iron Curtain, and news from the West slowly filtered into the country. Sís learned about beat poetry, rock 'n' roll, blue jeans, and Coca-Cola. He let his hair grow long, secretly read banned books, and joined a rock band. Then came the Prague Spring of 1968, and for a teenager who wanted to see the world and meet the Beatles, this was a magical time. It was short-lived, however, brought to a sudden and brutal end by the Soviet-led invasion. But this brief flowering had provided a glimpse of new possibilities—creativity could be discouraged but not easily killed.

By joining memory and history, Sís takes us on his extraordinary journey: from infant with paintbrush in hand to young man borne aloft by the wings of his “glorious artwork” (Elle) which “makes for irresistible reading.” (Washington Post Book World)

“A masterpiece for readers young and old.” —Starred, Kirkus Reviews

“A powerful combination of graphic novel and picture book . . . Terrific design dramatizes the conflict between conformity and creative freedom.” —Starred, Booklist

“Sís, who has entranced children and adults with his magical stories and drawings, has taken his talent to a new level. Peter, born to dream and draw, is now also teaching the tragic history of his native land under communism in this beautiful, poignant, and important work for those of all ages. ” —Madeleine Albright, former U.S. Sec of State

(A special thank you to book club member, Sarah Jean for the book suggestion.)

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Note: Whether you read the book with a child or on your own, it’s a quick read so we added on a 29-minute dramatic Czech film nominated for an Academy Award entitled “Most” aka “The Bridge”. (Free on YouTube with closed captions here.)

Trailer:

Helga’s Diary

Anne Frank's harrowing account finished before the concentration camp. This remarkable diary by a teenage girl takes readers inside.

Alongside her father and mother and the 45,000 Jews who live in Prague, Helga endures the Nazi invasion and regime: her father is denied work, schools are closed to her, she and her parents are confined to their flat. Then deportations begin, and her friends and family start to disappear.

In 1941, Helga and her parents are sent to the concentration camp of Terezín, where they live for three years. Here Helga documents their daily life—the harsh conditions, disease and suffering, as well as moments of friendship, creativity and hope—until, in 1944, they are sent to Auschwitz. Helga leaves her diary behind with her uncle, who bricks it into a wall to preserve it.

Helga's father is never heard of again, but miraculously Helga and her mother survive the horrors of Auschwitz, the grueling transports of the last days of the war, and manage to return to Prague. Helga writes down her experiences since Terezín, completing the diary. Out of the 15,000 children interred in Terezin, she is 1 of just 132 children who survived.

Reconstructed from her original notebooks, which were later retrieved from Terezín, and from the loose-leaf pages on which Helga wrote after the war, the diary is presented here in its entirety, accompanied by an interview with Helga and illustrated with the paintings she made during her time at Terezín. As such, Helga's Diary is one of the most vivid and comprehensive testimonies written during the Holocaust ever to have been recovered.

“The most moving Holocaust diary published since Anne Frank.” —The Telegraph

“A breathtaking account…a chilling testament to the tragedy of the Holocaust.”
—Publishers Weekly

“What's startling throughout is the resilience with which her buoyant spirit keeps bobbing up past the hardships, indignities, and cruelties.” —Francine Prose

“Page after page of writing that candidly, expertly, showcases humanity at its best and its worst.” —The Rumpus

(Group read suggestion from Beth McCrea, book club co-founder.)

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First Spring Grass Fire

Lambda Literary Award Finalist

Transgender indie electronica singer-songwriter Rae Spoon has six albums to their credit, including I Can't Keep All of Our Secrets. This first book by Rae (who uses “they” as a pronoun) is a candid, powerful story about a young person growing up queer in a strict Pentecostal family in Alberta.

The narrator attends church events and Billy Graham rallies faithfully with their family before discovering the music that becomes their salvation and means of escape. As their father's schizophrenia causes their parents' marriage to unravel, the narrator finds solace and safety in the company of their siblings, in their nascent feelings for a girl at school, and in their growing awareness that they are not the person their parents think they are. With a heart as big as the prairie sky, this is a quietly devastating, heart-wrenching coming-of-age book about escaping dogma, surviving abuse, finding love, and risking everything for acceptance.

“First Spring Grass Fire will be meaningful to anyone who has struggled to fit in. By telling these stories—of being different, queer, raised in a rigid belief system you didn't choose, trying to be yourself within circumstances you can't control—Rae Spoon illustrates the triumph in reclaiming and controlling your own identity. This moving collection is a story of what we do to find a place, physical or intangible, that we can call home.” —National Post

“The prose is concise without ornamentation; emotionally moving because of its raw honesty. While issues of gender and sexuality certainly underline the majority of the narrator's existential despair, the book works because it pushes the reader to understand the humanity of the narrator rather than simply a trans or lesbian narrative. It demonstrates the commonality of grief, loss, fear, pain, love, and longing.”
—Lambda Literary

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Our Lives Our Words

“Fear. I was scared to walk on the road for fear of people recognizing me. I was afraid the police might arrest me. I avoided taking the bus, not sure whom I could sit next to. I was scared to use the public toilet for fear that people might know my difference. I was scared that rotten tomatoes might hit me in the market. I was scared of falling in love for fear of being hit hard.”

The stories in this landmark volume chronicle, in their own words, the lives of aravanis* with narratives of pain and courage, of despair and triumph.

Aravanis have long been the invisible yet hyper-visible subjects of a societal gaze that reduces them to stereotype. Imagined as often as looked at or talked about, simultaneously revered and cursed, they have, in the process, been refused individual histories, lives and identities, even selves. Yet the community continues to challenge and subvert this view, persistently refusing to allow itself to be shamed or victimized. Some of the greatest recent victories in this ongoing battle for rights have been won in Tamil Nadu (a state in southern India), where the government first began to recognize many of the rights of the hijra community.

These stories are amongst the first accounts of hijra lives to be produced entirely by the members of the community themselves.

*As Identiversity notes, “nonbinary identities may seem like a new phenomenon in Western culture, but that’s not the case in other parts of the world. In India, a third gender identity known as hijra (or aravani in Tamil Nadu) has been intertwined with Indian culture for thousands of years, with hijras holding a prominent place in some of the most significant ancient Hindu texts.

Prior to British rule, hijras enjoyed a degree of acceptance in Indian society, playing a key role in celebrations. However, the colonial era was marked by criminalization and persecution, and today’s hijras—which include people who are intersex, transgender, and eunuchs—continue to occupy an uneasy space in Indian culture. Many are forced to eke out a living through begging or functioning as sex workers.

Efforts to gain legal protections took a significant step forward in 2014, when the Supreme Court of India officially recognized hijras as a third gender.

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It was Only Yesterday

It was Only Yesterday is an insider's story about life as a royal teenager and growing up in the Jubilee Palace in Africa’s first royal family under the protective eyes of her great grand-father Emperor Haile Selassie I, King of Kings, Lion of Judah, and Elect of God. In February 1974, her privileged life comes to an abrupt end with the advent of a bloody upheaval which overthrows her great grand-father’s government and lands her mother and close family in a rotting Communist jail. By this time, Hannah Mariam has fled to United Kingdom where she is granted status as a refugee.

Interested in writing from a very young age, her first book It was Only Yesterday offers unique insights about the hardship she faced growing up in a new setting and how she effectively managed change and uncertainty. It was Only Yesterday is a delightful account of her interactions with friends and family in the backdrop of the intricate world of imperial protocol and palace politics. The book’s narrative is based on diaries kept over the past forty-three years, a collection of family photographs, informal chats and interviews, generational stories, and researching academic books about her great grand-father and family. A promising new author, her readers will enjoy how she has interwoven personal experiences with firsthand knowledge of her great grand-father, one of the world’s longest reigning monarchs and an important historical figure in Ethiopian, African and world history. The book’s memoir genre will appeal to all, in particular to those interested in understanding the cultural, social, political and historical ramifications of pre-socialist Ethiopia of 1974.

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Better Dead than Divorced

Winner of 8 national awards

A romance.
A forced marriage.
A scandalous affair.
A hit man.
A true story.

“I tried to open my eyes, hoping to stir up enough courage to face the frightening commotion just outside our window. It was no use. My imagination ran wild as I conjured up all kinds of horrors unfolding out in the darkness.” These are the words of a young boy living in a small Greek mountain village in the 1950s trying to understand the booming noises out in the night that turned out to be gunshots. It’s a defining moment from Better Dead than Divorced. The boy is Lukas Konandreas, the author of this true story about the forced marriage and murder of Panayota, his father’s cousin.

Even after becoming a doctor and then immigrating to the US, Konandreas remained haunted by what happened in his village so long ago. “It has taken me years to piece together this story,” says Konandreas. “I didn’t want filial love to blind me to the truth, but my family reacted strongly to my research. ‘It’s a story that must be told,’ some said, ‘for Panayota if for no other reason.’ Others were less supportive. ‘Leave the dead alone,’ they said. ‘Let them lie peacefully in the cemetery of St. Anthony.’”

But needing to know what happened, Konandreas went on to conduct more than 160 interviews along with painstaking research of historic court records and old newspaper accounts to discover all the details.

Hollywood could not invent a better antagonist than George Nitsos. Outwardly, he had it all—good looks, money, charisma, power, and influence—while Panayota was a young village beauty. When it was discovered that George had taken Panayota’s virginity, her family, led by the author’s father, forces George to marry the girl. Yet the other village girls still could not resist George’s boyish charms. And he certainly wasn’t going to let marriage stand in the way of his indiscretions. Friends encouraged Panayota to leave George, but she felt this would bring shame to her. “Better dead than divorced,” she’s quoted as saying. And dead is how she ends up, killed by a hired hit man. But the story doesn’t end there as the author’s father driven by honor and conscience fights beyond his modest means to seek justice in a corrupt system.

Romance. Marriage. Scandal. Murder. The pursuit of justice. Sometimes, the truth is stranger and more compelling than fiction.

(Group read suggestion from Beth McCrea, book club co-founder.)

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Notes from the Hyena's Belly

Part autobiography and part social history, Notes from the Hyena's Belly offers an unforgettable portrait of Ethiopia, and of Africa, during the 1970s and '80s, an era of civil war, widespread famine, and mass execution. “We children lived like the donkey,” Mezlekia remembers, “careful not to wander off the beaten trail and end up in the hyena's belly.”

His memoir sheds light not only on the violence and disorder that beset his native country, but on the rich spiritual and cultural life of Ethiopia itself. Throughout, he portrays the careful divisions in dress, language, and culture between the Muslims and Christians of the Ethiopian landscape. Mezlekia also explores the struggle between western European interests and communist influences that caused the collapse of Ethiopia's social and political structure—and that forced him, at age 18, to join a guerrilla army.

Through droughts, floods, imprisonment, and killing sprees at the hands of military juntas, Mezlekia survived, eventually emigrating to Canada. In Notes from the Hyena's Belly he bears witness to a time and place that few Westerners have understood.

“Mezlekia has a born storyteller's knack for pacing, and in his musical voice he manages to convey the helter-skelter of his existence . . . A story of high drama told with aplomb.” —Kirkus Reviews

“By skillfully interweaving personal history, politics, and Amhara fables . . . [Mezlekia] has produced the most riveting book about Ethiopia since Kapuscinski's literary allegory The Emperor and the most distinguished African literary memoir since Soyinka's Ake appeared 20 years ago.” —The NY Times Book Review

(Group read suggestion from Mia DeGiovine Chaveco, book club co-founder.)

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The Wife’s Tale

In this indelible memoir that recalls the life of her remarkable 95-year old grandmother, Guardian journalist Aida Edemariam tells the story of modern Ethiopia—a nation that would undergo a tumultuous transformation from feudalism to monarchy to Marxist revolution to democracy, over the course of a single century.

Born in 1916, Yetemegnu was married and had given birth before she turned 15. As the daughter of a socially prominent man, she offered her husband, a poor yet gifted student, the opportunity to become an important religious leader.

She would endure extraordinary trials: deaths of some of her children; her husband’s imprisonment; and her son’s detention. She witnessed the Fascist invasion and the resistance, suffered Allied bombardment and exile; lived through a bloody revolution and the nationalization of her land. She gained audiences with the Emperor to argue for justice for her husband, for revenge, and for her children’s security, and fought court battles to defend her assets against powerful men.

Told in Yetemegnu’s enthralling voice and filled with a vivid cast of characters—emperors and empresses, priests and archbishops, scholars and slaves, Marxist revolutionaries and wartime double agents—The Wife’s Tale introduces a woman both imperious and vulnerable; a mother, widow, and businesswoman whose faith and numerous travails never quashed her love of laughter, mischief and dancing; a fighter whose life was shaped by contact with the volatile events that transformed her nation.

An intimate memoir that offers a panoramic view of Ethiopia’s recent history, The Wife’s Tale takes us deep into the landscape, rituals, social classes, and culture of this ancient, often mischaracterized, richly complex, and unforgettable land—and into the heart of one indomitable woman.

“An ambitious, elegantly descriptive… profoundly lyrical narrative…Edemariam’s book offers a glimpse into a singularly fascinating culture and history as it celebrates the courage, resilience, and grace of an extraordinary woman.” —Kirkus Reviews

(Group read suggestion from Beth McCrea, book club co-founder.)

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Sexographies

In fierce and sumptuous first-person accounts, renowned Peruvian journalist Gabriela Wiener records infiltrating the most dangerous Peruvian prison, participating in sexual exchanges in swingers clubs, traveling the dark paths of the city in the company of prostitutes, undergoing a complicated process of egg donation, and participating in a ritual of ayahuasca ingestion in the Amazon jungle—all while taking us on inward journeys that explore immigration, maternity, fear of death, ugliness, and threesomes. Fortunately, our eagle-eyed voyeur emerges from her narrative forays unscathed and ready to take on the kinks, obsessions, and messiness of our lives. Sexographies is an eye-opening, kamikaze journey across the contours of the human body and mind.

“The most striking quality of Sexographies is Wiener’s fearlessness―her ability to broach any topic without the slightest flinch, however unfamiliar or achingly personal…. her essays do not deal solely in sex, as the title of the collection may suggest, but in the exploration of identity and gender. How are we to make sense of our own bodies and the bodies of others? Why is it that we with the internet at our fingertips supposedly know more than ever, yet often experience less and are less open to the experiences of others? Wiener urges us to ask these questions in order to uncover the artificial boundaries that have confined us to our own experiences. Nothing is off limits to Gabriela Wiener and she spares her readers no detail of her adventures. The result is Sexographies―an addictive and darkly funny collection that surprises at every turn.” —The Arkansas International

(Group read suggestion from Beth McCrea, book club co-founder.)

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Country of My Skull

Ever since Nelson Mandela dramatically walked out of prison in 1990 after 27 years behind bars, South Africa has been undergoing a radical transformation. In one of the most miraculous events of the century, the oppressive system of apartheid was dismantled. Repressive laws mandating separation of the races were thrown out. The country, which had been carved into a crazy quilt that reserved the most prosperous areas for whites and the most desolate and backward for blacks, was reunited. The dreaded and dangerous security force, which for years had systematically tortured, spied upon, and harassed people of color and their white supporters, was dismantled. But how could this country—one of spectacular beauty and promise—come to terms with its ugly past? How could its people, whom the oppressive white government had pitted against one another, live side by side as friends and neighbors?

To begin the healing process, Nelson Mandela created the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, headed by the renowned cleric Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Established in 1995, the commission faced the awesome task of hearing the testimony of the victims of apartheid as well as the oppressors. Amnesty was granted to those who offered a full confession of any crimes associated with apartheid. Since the commission began its work, it has been the central player in a drama that has riveted the country. In this book, Antjie Krog, a South African journalist and poet who has covered the work of the commission, recounts the drama, the horrors, the wrenching personal stories of the victims and their families. Through the testimonies of victims of abuse and violence, from the appearance of Winnie Mandela to former South African president P. W. Botha’s extraordinary courthouse press conference, this award-winning poet leads us on an amazing journey.

(A special thank you to book club member, Jennifer Koen for the suggestion.)

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