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Beneath the Lion's Gaze:

A Novel
Front Cover
30 Reviews
W W Norton & Company Incorporated, Jan 1, 2010 - Fiction - 308 pages
This memorable, heartbreaking story opens in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 1974, on the eve of a revolution. Yonas kneels in his mother’s prayer room, pleading to his god for an end to the violence that has wracked his family and country. His father, Hailu, a prominent doctor, has been ordered to report to jail after helping a victim of state-sanctioned torture to die. And Dawit, Hailu’s youngest son, has joined an underground resistance movement—a choice that will lead to more upheaval and bloodshed across a ravaged Ethiopia.

Beneath the Lion’s Gaze tells a gripping story of family, of the bonds of love and friendship set in a time and place that has rarely been explored in fiction. It is a story about the lengths human beings will go in pursuit of freedom and the human price of a national revolution. Emotionally gripping, poetic, and indelibly tragic, Beneath The Lion’s Gaze is a transcendent and powerful debut.

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Brilliant novel by a first time Ethiopian writer. - Goodreads
Positive: Writer has a nice touch. - Goodreads
Plot. Point of View. About the last. - Goodreads
The writing is stellar and you can't put the book down. - Goodreads

Review: Beneath the Lion's Gaze

User Review  - Emma - Goodreads

First, the cover is not doing this book any favors. I assumed it was a memoir, probably of a child soldier or something. Even once I realized this was a novel, I didn't have high expectations for it ... Read full review

Review: Beneath the Lion's Gaze

User Review  - Michelle - Goodreads

This books was really slow for me. I wasn't connecting with the characters, the story, the writing, then boom, at around 60%, I was like, holy moly, connected. Pretty much because things started ... Read full review

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About the author (2010)

Maaza Mengiste was born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. A Pushcart Prize nominee, she was named ldquo;New Literary Idolrdquo; by New York magazine. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.

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