'Extraordinary' Maaza Mengiste 'Exhilarating' Elif Batuman Selam is the youngest child in a
large turbulent family. Even before she is born her omniscience animates life in a Small Town
in 1980s southwestern Ethiopia. Selam and her father listen to the radio in secret as the
socialist military junta that recently overthrew the government seizes properties and wages
civil war in the North. The Asmelashes once an enterprising land-owning family are
ostracized under the new regime. In the Small Town where they live nosy women convene around
coffee ceremonies multiple times a day the gossip spreading like wildfire. As Selam's mother
the powerful and relentlessly dignified Degitu grows ill she embraces a persecuted
Pentecostal God and insists her family convert alongside her. The Asmelashes stand solidly in
opposition to the times 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. The History of a Difficult Child is about what happens when mother God and country are
at odds and how one difficult child finds her voice.
