![]() The textures, sights, smells, and workings of Lilly’s life there are painted in broad strokes and brilliant colors. The Ethiopian sections leap off the page with a visceral reality. That struggle is what makes the dichotomy between the two sections, the two lives of Lilly, work so well. ![]() It’s not an easy story to read: Lilly does not have an easy life - from the murder of her parents when she was eight to her desire to make a place for herself in Harar, to her eventual flight back to England when the 1974 Ethiopian revolution broke out - she has to struggle and fight and push to make her life work. Told in alternating sections - from Ethiopia in the 1970s to Britain in the mid- to late 1980s and early 1990s - it tells the story of Lilly, the orphaned daughter of British parents, and her experiences growing up in Morocco and Harar, Ethiopia, as well as her embracing Islam. ![]() So when a book gets it just right, feels so effortless, so seamless, that one absorbs the historical part along with the fiction, it’s pure joy to read. However, if there is little or no historical setting, or if the author plays fast and loose with historical characters, the novel tends to sound too modern, which negates the historical impact. If the history and historical setting overwhelm the plot and the characters, it tends to be boring. ![]() ![]() Historical fiction is a tricky genre: it has to be just right. ![]()
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