Notes from the Hyena’s Belly

In a narrative sparkling with wit, Nega Mezlekia recalls his boyhood in Jijiga, Ethiopia, during the fall of Emperor Selassie, and his bold journey to manhood during the rise to power of the communist Junta, whose merciless Red Terror slaughtered 100,000 Ethiopian youths. Out of this sun-drenched land where modern corruption rides ancient custom like a predator, Mezlekia crafts a world elegant in its aridity, extreme in its absurdity, and vast in its ironies.

“A lively cast of characters tumbles forth, a cast worthy of Gabriel Garcia Marquez… Mezlekia has summoned, with imaginative directness and impressive tonal range, a world of uncertainty in which politics is never just background but permeates ordinary life.” – The New York Times Book Review (cover story)

“One could even begin to see Mezlekia as a kind of Ethiopian Amy Tan or Isabel Allende—a charming, omniscient guide leading readers through a mysterious culture few Americans understand.”- The Boston Globe

“[Mezlekia] describes his experience…with the vivid swiftness of a Stephen Crane story.”