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Title details for The Wife's Tale by Aida Edemariam - Wait list

The Wife's Tale

A Personal History

by Aida Edemariam
Adjoa Andoh
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A FINALIST FOR THE GOVERNOR GENERAL'S LITERARY AWARD: The true story of one indomitable woman caught in the tumult of an extraordinary century in Ethiopia, The Wife's Tale has the sweep and lyrical power that captivated readers of Abraham Verghese's Cutting for Stone.
A hundred years ago, a girl was born in the northern Ethiopian city of Gondar. Before she was ten years old, Yetemegnu was married to a man two decades her senior, an ambitious poet-priest. Over her lifetime her world changed beyond recognition. She witnessed Fascist invasion and occupation, Allied bombardment and exile from her city, the ascent and fall of Emperor Haile Selassie, revolution and civil war. She endured all these things alongside parenthood, widowhood and the death of children.
The Wife's Tale is an intimate memoir, of both a life and a country. In prose steeped in Yetemegnu's distinctive voice and point of view, Aida Edemariam retells her grandmother's stories of a childhood surrounded by proud priests and soldiers, of her husband's imprisonment, of her fight for justice—all of it played out against the rhythms of the natural world and an ancient cycle of religious festivals. She introduces us to a rich cast of characters—emperors and empresses, scholars and nuns, Marxist revolutionaries and wartime double agents—and through these encounters takes us deep into the landscape and culture of this many-layered, often mischaracterized country.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    March 20, 2018

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9780735275881
      • File size: 284582 KB
      • Duration: 09:52:52

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Adjoa Andoh expertly narrates the author's memoir of her grandmother's life, spanning twentieth-century Ethiopia. The narrative jumps between childbirth, politics, and religion, but any confusion is allayed by Andoh's many vocal inflections. In a setting where women's roles are limited (the "wife" here is Yetemegnu, who is 8 years old at her marriage), the rituals of home are paramount. As Edemariam provides vivid descriptions of foods and their preparation and Yetemegnu's care of her husband and children, Andoh brings these details to life with a deft command of Amharic phrases. Ultimately, the illiterate Yetemegnu is granted an audience with Emperor Haile Selassie to clear her husband's name and to fight for her land. Andoh narrates these scenes in a manner that belies Yetemegnu's supposed powerlessness. M.P.P. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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