Stories from Ethiopia

In Stories from Ethiopia, Charlotte Schiander Gray deftly presents the trials and the delights of life in Ethiopia. The sharp aroma of roasting coffee, the cascades of bougainvillea, the press of the streets, the cool of a compound, the buzz of flies, and the incense of Coptic churches are all here in a series of swiftly sketched vignettes, old and new. In fourteen tales, each revealing a new facet of a glorious story and a proud people, we catch a sweep glimpse of Abyssinian history and see encounters with outsiders, real and imagined: Early Portuguese explorers casting out for the rumored land of Prester John. The British expeditionary force that came to free the shackled prisoners of the mad King Tewodros. The acquisitive Italians, angling for a colonial prize in the splendor of the court of Menelik and his consort. Then the fading, doomed pageantry of Haile Selassie's proud resistance to Mussolini. On a more intimate scale, we edge up to the present, with stories of yearning: an injured beggar befriends a wealthy aid worker through the window of her fancy European car; the longing of the lover whose sweetheart left him for America and a marriage of convenience. Gray has a keen eye and a deep sympathy for her subject. This richly imagined collection is a tour de force.