Oromay

Ethiopian writer Girma, who was born in 1939, makes his English-language debut with this gripping novel, which was originally published in 1983, a year before his disappearance. It’s a fictionalized account of the Ethiopian government’s anti-insurgent 1982 Red Star Campaign, centered on journalist Tsegaye Hailemaryam, who has just been appointed to lead the campaign’s propaganda arm in Asmara. His role gives him access to higher-ups in the Provisional Military Administration Committee, who order him to produce glowing success stories rather than ones with dry facts. The assignment makes him increasingly anxious, and his fiancé grows worried, too, prompting him to ominously tell her, “I’m lost in a jungle called the Red Star Campaign.” Meanwhile, Tsegaye has fallen in love with a mysterious local woman named Fiammetta, who seems to know more about the insurgency than she lets on. Girma’s expert plotting reaches a tense and emotional climax when Tsegaye joins the front lines: “The carnage overwhelms my mind and my heart is filled with hatred for the vicious enemy.” Readers will have a tough time putting this one down. Agent: Markus Hoffman, Regal Hoffmann & Assoc. (Feb.)