The Shadow King by Maaza Mengiste
In her second novel, The Shadow King, Maaza Mengiste has crafted a beautiful, intense, and educational historical-fiction novel about war (specifically, women and war), national pride, and memory. This novel is not only wildly entertaining, but also bound to pique anyone’s curiosity about Ethiopian history. Before reading The Shadow King, I knew practically nothing about Ethiopian history, or their conflicts with Italy. Reading the novel was an excellent introduction to understanding this complex and important history and inspired me to further research the historical facts that were included or left out of the novel. After completing all the 2020 Booker Prize shortlisted novels, The Shadow King and Shuggie Bain (the winning novel) are my two favorites. The Shadow King was a strong competitor for Shuggie Bain because of its expert implementation of nostalgia as a means of storytelling, the depth and range of characters and perspectives, and it’s inclusion of history and real event’s in it’s plot.
The novel begins in 1974 with a quick prologue where the reader is introduced to Hirut, an Ethiopian woman sitting on a bus with a box of letters, photographs, and other keepsakes. In 1974, Ethiopia had been struggling under the rule of Haile Selassie; the previous year there had been a terrible famine killing tens of thousands of Ethiopians, and there was extreme unrest (New York Times 1974). On the bus, Hirut sees a picture of Selassie and thinks about the “real emperor”, how he “has never worn a crown”, and how “she was his most trusted soldier: the proud guard of the Shadow King” (6). Hirut is traveling to visit a soldato (Italian soldier) whom she met during the Second Italo-Ethiopian war in 1935. Hirut finds a picture of herself in the box, and remembers when she was a soldier, many years ago. Mengiste’s decision to start her novel off in this way was genius. It immediately causes the reader to become curious and ask questions about Hirut. Why was she a soldier? Why is she still in contact with a soldato (who should be her enemy)? Who is the Shadow King, and how did Hirut become his most trusted soldier and guard? It is an extremely effective hook. Besides grabbing the reader’s attention, it also creates that sense of nostalgia (reflection on one’s past) that seemed to be an integral part of each 2020 Booker Prize shortlisted novel. Nostalgia causes the reader to become more emotionally invested in the characters and plot.
Of course, having three-dimensional characters with complex personalities, stories, and feelings certainly helps the reader become more engaged in a novel. The Shadow King included so many characters, it’s incredible that each of them had so much depth. Mengiste took on the challenge of including as many perspectives as possible in her story. Not only does the reader see Hirut’s side, but Aster’s, Kidane’s, Italian soldier’s, Italian leaders, and even Selassie’s perspective. Mengiste doesn’t just include what these characters see and do, but how they think and feel. She describes the Italian Army’s cruelty against Ethiopians without forgetting that an army is made up of individuals (usually very young men) with conflicting emotions. She describes some of the saddening cultural aspects of Ethiopian culture (such as child brides) while recognizing that those who engaged in that practice at the time were not purely evil. In other words, Mengiste did not spare the reader from the complexity of the situation, or the people involved. She used her broad array of character’s emotions and thoughts to show the reader how complicated and painful the Italian Invasion was for most involved.
Writing a historical-fiction novel about any war is no easy feat. Keeping a balance between inclusion of historical facts and fictional situations is difficult. Bogging down the reader (who likely didn’t pick up the book for a history lesson) with too many facts and dates might bore them but excluding too many creates confusion about the plot. I think Mengiste did an amazing job keeping this delicate balance throughout the book. While I did conduct a lot of outside research to supplement the novel, I found that I could use the book itself to check back and remember certain facts and dates that were actually accurate. I didn’t feel like the facts took away from the plotline but provided a backbone of sorts for the plot. Even an expert on the Italo-Ethiopian wars could read this novel and be interested—regardless of the fact that they know about the battles or what the emperor will do—because the individual character’s stories (some based in reality, some entirely fictional) are weaved between the dates and facts so well.
I loved reading The Shadow King, and am already excited to read Mengiste’s first novel, Beneath the Lion’s Gaze, as well as her future novels. As mentioned, this novel was one of my favorites from the shortlist, along with Shuggie Bain. I still agree with the judges that Shuggie Bain was the winning novel. I mostly think this because it is simply a novel and not historical fiction. In general, I think it is harder for genre books to win literary prizes, probably because most genre books must rely on something. For example, a historical fiction novel must rely on historical fact to some degree; dystopian novels must rely on the fictional society created by the author; romance novels must rely on a love story plotline. To some, these “reliance’s” may feel limiting, and hinder a novel’s ability to be considered literary as opposed to just good fiction. While, in my opinion, The Shadow King is certainly worthy of literary status regardless of its genre, for the sake of the Booker Prize, it’s understandable why it was not selected as the winner.
Works Cited
Mohr, Charles. “Ethiopian Famine Hits Millions.” The New York Times, The New York Times,
15 Feb. 1974, https://www.nytimes.com/1974/02/15/archives/ethiopian-famine-hits-millions-ethiopian-famine-affects-millions.html.
