The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears

Posted on 11 October 2017 by Dinaw Mengestu

A haunting and powerful first novel that views the streets of Washington, D.C and Addis Ababa through the eyes of Sepha who, seventeen years ago, fled Ethiopia during the Revolution, and now runs a failing convenience store in a poor African American neighborhood in Washington Published as The Beautiful Thing That Heaven Bears in the USA, Canada and Australia and as Children of the Revolution in the UK.Seventeen years ago, Sepha Stephanos fled the Ethiopian Revolution after witnessing soldiers beat his father to the point of certain death, selling off his parents jewelry to pay for passage to the United States Now he finds himself running a grocery store in a poor African American neighborhood in Washington, D.C His only companions are two fellow African immigrants who share his feelings of frustration with and bitter nostalgia for their home continent He realizes that his life has turned out completely different and far isolated from the one he had imagined for himself years ago Soon Sepha s neighborhood begins to change Hope comes in the form of new neighbors Judith and Naomi, a white woman and her biracial daughter who become his friends and remind him of what having a family is like for the first time in years But when the neighborhood s newfound calm is disturbed by a series of racial incidents, Sepha may lose everything all over again Told in a haunting and powerful first person narration that casts the streets of Washington, D.C., and Addis Ababa through Sepha s eyes, The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears is a deeply affecting and unforgettable debut novel about what it means to lose a family and a country and what it takes to create a new home Published as The Beautiful Thing That Heaven Bears in the USA, Canada and Australia and as Children of the Revolution in the UK Winner of the Guardian UK 2007 book award. Best Read [ The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears ] author [ Dinaw Mengestu ] For Kindle ePUB or eBook – kino-fada.fr This is a magnificently simple book Deceptively simple, like the Old Man and the Sea, in that you breeze through it and think nice story but when you pause for one moment and think about it, you realize that it is so muchthan a nice story.A blend of the political uncertainties and accompanying atrocities of the African continent with the ever present class struggles overlaid by racial tension of America The parallels and similarities are clear but woven through the book in a way that This is a magnificently simple book Deceptively simple, like the Old Man a...Big disappointment This is all about an Ethiopian refugee who s now been in Washington DC for 17 years and runs a grocery store in a poor neighbourhood Now the author must know whereof he speaks, but I could hardly believe the picture he painted In 17 years, we are to understand that Sepha, our immigrant, has made precisely two friends And these two friends have only made two friends each other And none of these three immigrant friends have got married or had any long term relationships Big disappointment This is all about an Ethiopian refugee who s now been in Washin...wow what a compact, melancholy little novel written in overlapping layers as the narrator grapples with what has become of his life, it s almost like a snowglobe of sadness, isolation, regret, and loss shake it, and you see fragments of Sepha s family life in Addis Ababa shake it again, and you see fragments of his friendship with two other African immigrants, apparently his only close a...The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears was the July selection for my book club, but I almost didn t read it because I knew I wouldn t be able to make the actual meeting But, I decided to read it anyway and I m glad I did My expectations going in may have shaped my feelings about the book I knew that it was written by an Ethiopian immigrant and that it was about the Ethiopian immigrant experience in Washington, D.C Before picking it up, I assumed it was a memoir I thought it would be dense The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears was the July selection for my book club, but I almost didn t read it because I knew I wouldn t be able to make the actual meeting But, I decided to read it anyway and I m glad I did My expectations going in may have shaped my feelings about the book I knew that it was written by an Ethiopian immigrant and that it was about the Ethiopian immigrant experience in Washington, D.C Before picking it up, I assumed it was a memoir I thought it would be dense and that my main motivation for turning each page would be because it was ...It came down to two things for me The narrator and the location The narrator s voice is haunting and sweet Tinged with sadness and hope, that at times made it difficult to bear But it propelled me on, hoping to see this kind and pitiful man receive some happiness, some lasting beauty in his life The other characters are mere set pieces and perhaps I should deduct a star for that to generate reaction from our narrator, to give us some peek into his psyche But those...This is an excellent book On its surface it s about the immigrant experience, but it delves deeper and achieves a universality which is muchprofound Anyone who has ever experienced the dislocation of not belonging to a time or place can relate to this story Despite socio economic differences, these characters share a struggle to be part of something greater than themselves This individual striving to belong assumes socio political ...Beautifully written story of an ethiopian immigrant in DC For me it perfectly captured the alienness of belonging to two cultures and therefore belonging to none Wished the ending offered some closure.Seventeen years ago Sepha Stephanos fled Ethiopia during the revolution which called Sepha s father Now Sepha owns and works in a convenience store in a poor African American neighborhood in Washington, D.C In seventeen years seventeen Sepha has made friends with a couple other immigrants from his home country, but that is the extent of his relationships in the entire time As the neighborhood falls apart around him, and his store continues to fail it doesn t help that he s rather lackadai Seventeen years ago Sepha Stephanos fled Ethiopia during the revolution which called Sepha s father Now Sepha owns and works in a convenience store in a poor African American neighborhood in Washington, D.C In seventeen years seventeen Sepha has made friends with a couple other immigrants from his home country, but that is the extent of his relationships in the entire time As the neighborhood falls apart around him, and his store continues to fail it doesn t help that he s rather lackadaisical about working anyhow , racial incidents begin to occur In the midst of the turmoil Sepha meets a white woman, Judith, and her biracial daughter, Naomi, as they move in There is a feeling of hope and peace with their arrival since, you know, it takes a white person to fix the bad neighborhoods Yeah, that is called sarcasm I really wanted to like this boo...Rating 4.25 of fiveHow wonderful it is to find a first novel that feels so accomplished and tells such an engrossing story I can t imagine that real, enjoyable talent is becoming rarer in a world that contains such eloquent proofs of its health.Mengestu tells the story of three friends, African immigrants all, who meet in Washington DC, for so long the home territory of nativist sentiment in our republic of exclusion I don t think a recap of the plot will help anyone decide whether or not to Rating 4.25 of fiveHow wonderful it is to find a first novel that feels so accomplished and tells such an engrossing story I can t imagine that real, enjoyable talent is becoming rarer in a world that contains such eloquent proofs of its health.Mengestu tells the story of three friends, African immigrants all, who meet in Washington DC, for so long the home territory of nativist sentiment in our republic of exclusion I don t think a recap of the plo...This novel, the first by Dinaw Mengestu, is set in Washington, DC, at the beginning of the 2000 s It about African immigrants, one in particular, Sepha Stephanos, an Ethiopian refugee, and the changing city Sepha runs a small corner grocery store, but after 17 years in the United States, he still hasn t found his way He fled his country at the age of 19 after his father was taken away from his home, and killed His only family member in America, an uncle left behind a comfortable life in Et This novel, the first by Dinaw Mengestu, is set in Washington, DC, at the beginning of the 20...

English
11 October 2017

Dinaw Mengestu