The Beautiful Things that Heaven Bears

Dion Graham turns in a fine performance as Sepha Stephanos, an Ethiopian shop owner in Washington, DC, whose somewhat desolate life takes a turn for the better with the arrival of Judith, a white scholar, and her daughter, Naomi, to his rapidly gentrifying neighborhood. The slow pace of the writing could easily have led to a heavy, dragging narration, but Graham's affectation of an African accent and his reflective tone of world-weariness add the perfect touch to the story of a man whose life takes a few unexpected turns after many years of sameness. Graham's tone and accent change to reflect the accents of local residents and African friends, adding a pleasant contrast and liveliness to the narrative. S.G. (c) AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine

Starred review from November 20, 2006
Barely suppressed despair and black wit infuse this beautifully observed debut from Ethiopian émigré Mengestu. Set over eight months in a gentrifying Washington, D.C., neighborhood in the 1970s, it captures an uptick in Ethiopian grocery store owner Sepha Stephanos's long-deferred hopes, as Judith, a white academic, fixes up the four-story house next to his apartment building, treats him to dinner and lets him steal a kiss. Just as unexpected is Sepha's friendship with Judith's biracial 11-year-old daughter, Naomi (one of the book's most vivid characters), over a copy of The Brothers Karamazov
. Mengestu adds chiaroscuro with the story of Stephanos's 17-year exile from his family and country following his father's murder by revolutionary soldiers. After long days in the dusty, barely profitable shop, Sepha's two friends, Joseph from Congo and Kenneth from Kenya, joke with Sepha about African dictators and gently mock his romantic aspirations, while the neighborhood's loaded racial politics hang over Sepha and Judith's burgeoning relationship like a sword of Damocles. The novel's dirge-like tone may put off readers looking for the next Kite Runner
, but Mengestu's assured prose and haunting set pieces (especially a series of letters from Stephanos's uncle to Jimmy Carter, pleading that he respect "the deep friendship between our two countries") are heart-rending and indelible.