The History of a Difficult Child

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What to expect

Brought to you by Penguin.

Selam is the youngest child in her large, turbulent family. Even before she is born, her electrifying omniscience animates life in her Small Town in 1980s southwestern Ethiopia. She arrives like a flash flood; unexpected, strong-willed, roaring.

Selam and her father listen to the radio in secret as the socialist military junta seizes properties and wages civil war in the North. Meanwhile her mother, the powerful and relentlessly dignified Degitu, embraces a persecuted, Pentecostal God as she gets sicker. Once an enterprising, landowning family, now they are ostracised under the new regime, and Selam grows up seeking revenge on despotic comrades, neighbourhood bullies and a ruthless God. Wise beyond her years yet thoroughly naive, she contends with an inner fury, a profound sadness, and a throbbing, unstoppable pursuit of education, freedom, and love.

'A major new writing talent... A remarkably original voice, fresh and irreverent' Chris Abani

'Extraordinary... the story of a sharp-witted young girl trying to hold herself together during political upheaval, and an achingly tender tale of community, family, grief and forgiveness' Maaza Mengiste

©2024 Mihret Sibhat (P)2024 Penguin Audio

Critics Review

  • An extraordinary novel. At once a story of a sharp-witted young girl trying to hold herself together during political upheaval, and an achingly tender tale of community, family, grief and forgiveness

    Maaza Mengiste, Booker Prize-shortlisted author of THE SHADOW KING

  • A major new writing talent. Not only does the novel confront history, masculinity and gender in refreshing but uncompromising ways, it also has a remarkably original voice, fresh and irreverent. Sibhat will soon be one of the most influential voices in the literature of Africa

    Chris Abani, author of GRACELAND

  • A brilliant powerhouse of a novel, an incandescent read from an electrifying writer

    Patricia Hampl, author of THE ART OF THE WASTED DAY

  • Selam, Mihret Sibhat’s ferociously witty young narrator, depicts her family’s religious and political struggles in Ethiopia in extraordinarily rich and original prose… Deeply moving as well as hilarious. A one-of-a-kind must-read debut

    Julie Schumacher, author of DEAR COMMITTEE MEMBERS

  • An unexpected and hilarious voice with a velocity all its own… razor-sharp. Tender and merciless, full of human and political insight. I couldn’t stop turning the pages

    V. V. Ganeshananthan, author of BROTHERLESS NIGHT

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