Adjoa Andoh expertly narrates the author’s memoir of her grandmother’s life, spanning twentieth-century Ethiopia. The narrative jumps between childbirth, politics, and religion, but any confusion is allayed by Andoh’s many vocal inflections. In a setting where women’s roles are limited (the “wife” here is Yetemegnu, who is 8 years old at her marriage), the rituals of home are paramount. As Edemariam provides vivid descriptions of foods and their preparation and Yetemegnu’s care of her husband and children, Andoh brings these details to life with a deft command of Amharic phrases. Ultimately, the illiterate Yetemegnu is granted an audience with Emperor Haile Selassie to clear her husband’s name and to fight for her land. Andoh narrates these scenes in a manner that belies Yetemegnu’s supposed powerlessness. M.P.P. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine
The Wife's Tale: A Personal History
Narrated by Adjoa Andoh
Aida EdemariamUnabridged — 9 hours, 52 minutes
The Wife's Tale: A Personal History
Narrated by Adjoa Andoh
Aida EdemariamUnabridged — 9 hours, 52 minutes
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Overview
In this indelible memoir that recalls the life of her remarkable ninety-five-year old grandmother, Guardian journalist Aida Edemariam tells the story of modern Ethiopia-a nation that would undergo a tumultuous transformation from feudalism to monarchy to Marxist revolution to democracy, over the course of one century.
Born in the northern Ethiopian city of Gondar in about 1916, Yetemegnu was married and had given birth before she turned fifteen. As the daughter of a socially prominent man, she also offered her husband, a poor yet gifted student, the opportunity to become an important religious leader.
Over the next decades Yetemegnu would endure extraordinary trials: the death of some of her children; her husband's imprisonment; and the detention of one of her sons. She witnessed the Fascist invasion of Ethiopia and the subsequent resistance, suffered Allied bombardment and exile from her city; lived through a bloody revolution and the nationalization of her land. She gained audiences with Emperor Haile Selassie I to argue for justice for her husband, for revenge, and for her children's security, and fought court battles to defend her assets against powerful men. But sustained, in part, by her fierce belief in the Virgin Mary and in Orthodox Christianity, Yetemegnu survived. She even learned to read, in her sixties, and eventually made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem.
Told in Yetemegnu's enthralling voice and filled with a vivid cast of characters-emperors and empresses, priests and scholars, monks and nuns, archbishops and slaves, Marxist revolutionaries and wartime double agents-The Wife's Tale introduces a woman both imperious and vulnerable; a mother, widow, and businesswoman whose deep faith and numerous travails never quashed her love of laughter, mischief and dancing; a fighter whose life was shaped by direct contact with the volatile events that transformed her nation.
An intimate memoir that offers a panoramic view of Ethiopia's recent history, The Wife's Tale takes us deep into the landscape, rituals, social classes, and culture of this ancient, often mischaracterized, richly complex, and unforgettable land-and into the heart of one indomitable woman.
Aida Edemariam's The Wife's Tale is a powerful memoir that offers readers an intimate look at the life of Yetemegnu, a remarkable woman who lived through Ethiopia's tumultuous transformation from feudalism to democracy over the course of one century.
HarperCollins 2024
Editorial Reviews
Aida Edemariam may not have intended the title of her book to recall the Wife of Bath, of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. Still, three themes fundamental to that canonical work are also at the capacious, warmly beating heart of The Wife's Tale…Chaucer's medieval classic unfolds as a storytelling battle among pilgrims traveling to the shrine of an English archbishop martyred in a church-and-state intrigue. The Wife throws down with a story about a knight who, to escape punishment for rape, embarks on a quest to find out what makes women happiest. (Sovereignty over their husbands, it turns out.) Edemariam's sublimely crafted tribute to her grandmother also involves sparring storytellers, religion (including pilgrimage and church-and-state intrigues) and the happiness and sovereignty of married women…The role that Yetemegnu finally inhabits is not that of mother but storyteller…In later years, her prowess with language, despite her illiteracy, impresses some as rivaling that of her dead husband, the trained church poet. The Wife's Tale, which plunges us into [Yetemegnu's] consciousness almost as if no seams existed between the author and her subject, as if Edemariam were channeling her grandmother's spirit, is in a sense the older woman's narrative gambit from beyond the grave…so assured and so transcendent, it could win Chaucerian contests.
Edemariam anchors the book in these mundane rhythms, setting them against a vividly realized landscape…Political turmoil sweeps in like a dream…The book elegantly collapses the distance between the vast and the intimate, showing how history reaches even the most sheltered.” — New Yorker
“To read Aida Edemariam’s The Wife’s Tale is to savour the life of her grandmother, Yetemegnu. It is a life scented with ginger and garlic, cardamom and basil, which spans emperors, revolutions, invasion, conquest and liberation. Rather than cataloguing Ethiopia’s turbulent modern history, Ms Edemariam stitches together the fragmentary memories and experiences of a single woman” — Economist
“[Through] hauntingly beautiful recollections...Edemariam manages to reel us into a particularly gripping personal history, one that reveals the unassailable spirit of one woman.” — Minneapolis Star Tribune
“THE WIFE’S TALE is the extraordinary memoir of a woman who lived through the cataclysmic events that shaped modern Ethiopian history. The narrative, which is lovingly and expertly put together by her granddaughter, is a window into a world that would otherwise be invisible to us.” — Abraham Verghese, author of Cutting for Stone
“An ambitious, elegantly descriptive… profoundly lyrical narrative…Edemariam’s book offers a glimpse into a singularly fascinating culture and history as it celebrates the courage, resilience, and grace of an extraordinary woman. A richly evocative tale of family and international history.” — Kirkus Reviews
“[Like Chaucer’s Wife of Bath] Aida Edemariam’s sublimely crafted tribute to her grandmother also involves sparring storytellers, religion and the happiness and sovereignty of married women…Intimate history meets the sweep of imperial history when Yetemegnu finds the courage to resist…Yet the role that Yetemegnu finally inhabits is not that of mother but storyteller…Her story is certainly cracked open in the telling, so assured and transcendent, it could win Chaucerian contests.” — Gaiutra Bahadur, New York Times Book Review
“In this outstanding and unusual memoir, journalist Edemariam traces a century of Ethiopian history through the life — and distinctive voice — of her nonagenarian grandmother, Yetemegnu...If Edemariam creates a sense of intimacy by imagining her grandmother’s innermost thoughts, she also brings history alive with her gift for vivid description.” — Financial Times
“An intriguing depiction of a remarkable life.” — Library Journal
“A rich portrait of her grandmother’s full life…through lyrical prose interspersed with poetry, prayers, and legends…Readers will appreciate Edemariam’s work—part memoir, part history—for its personal look at an eventful century in Ethiopia.” — Booklist
“Beautifully written….Aida Edemariam viewing the country’s past century through her grandmother’s eyes, brings us a more nuanced view, informed by a real knowledge….She respects the past, but she doesn’t sentimentalise it. To read The Wife’s Tale is not just to hear about times past and (for a western reader) far away, but to be transported into them.” — Lucy Hughes-Hallett, New Statesmen
“Extraordinary vivid ‘personal history’… Edemariam not only brings her grandmother to life but also conveys the complexity of a unique, still strongly religious African culture … She weaves in all the necessary historical detail, while expressing in precise and often lyrical language the colours and textures of a beautiful country and the customs and mind-set of an ancient people.” — Andrew Lycett, Literary Review
“THE WIFE’S TALE is a remarkable achievement: meticulously researched, finely wrought and deeply felt, it is the story of one woman’s life lived, not so much against the backdrop of history, but in the midst of it. Edemariam’s grandmother succeeded in building a life out of very little, except her enduring, quiet courage.” — Aminatta Forna, author of THE DEVIL THAT DANCED ON WATER
Edemariam anchors the book in these mundane rhythms, setting them against a vividly realized landscape…Political turmoil sweeps in like a dream…The book elegantly collapses the distance between the vast and the intimate, showing how history reaches even the most sheltered.”
THE WIFE’S TALE is the extraordinary memoir of a woman who lived through the cataclysmic events that shaped modern Ethiopian history. The narrative, which is lovingly and expertly put together by her granddaughter, is a window into a world that would otherwise be invisible to us.
[Through] hauntingly beautiful recollections...Edemariam manages to reel us into a particularly gripping personal history, one that reveals the unassailable spirit of one woman.
THE WIFE’S TALE is a remarkable achievement: meticulously researched, finely wrought and deeply felt, it is the story of one woman’s life lived, not so much against the backdrop of history, but in the midst of it. Edemariam’s grandmother succeeded in building a life out of very little, except her enduring, quiet courage.
A rich portrait of her grandmother’s full life…through lyrical prose interspersed with poetry, prayers, and legends…Readers will appreciate Edemariam’s work—part memoir, part history—for its personal look at an eventful century in Ethiopia.
Edemariam anchors the book in these mundane rhythms, setting them against a vividly realized landscape…Political turmoil sweeps in like a dream…The book elegantly collapses the distance between the vast and the intimate, showing how history reaches even the most sheltered.”
A rich portrait of her grandmother’s full life…through lyrical prose interspersed with poetry, prayers, and legends…Readers will appreciate Edemariam’s work—part memoir, part history—for its personal look at an eventful century in Ethiopia.
This biography of a heroic Ethiopian woman is surely unique, above all for its brilliant combination of big historical vistas with vivid physical details (the clothes, the cooking, the weather!). To begin with I found the narrative almost overwhelming, a sort of sensual overload, but gradually I became completely mesmerized, and found myself carried deep into that other world, with all its beautiful customs and strange cruelties and enduring loyalties. An exceptional biography that really does open a human window onto an unknown history.
Extraordinary vivid ‘personal history’… Edemariam not only brings her grandmother to life but also conveys the complexity of a unique, still strongly religious African culture … She weaves in all the necessary historical detail, while expressing in precise and often lyrical language the colours and textures of a beautiful country and the customs and mind-set of an ancient people.
A beautifully written book…Aida Edemariam viewing the country’s past century through her grandmother’s eyes, brings us a more nuanced view, informed by a real knowledge…She respects the past, but she doesn’t sentimentalise it. To read The Wife’s Tale is not just to hear about times past and (for a western reader) far away, but to be transported into them.
In the hands of Aida Edemariam, a strong, poetic writer, a seemingly ordinary life opens up to reveal the extraordinary richness at its heart...The power of Aida Edemariam’s writing is its ability to reach across the gaping chasm formed by time, alien tradition and unfamiliar mores, connecting up our common humanity.
In this outstanding and unusual memoir, journalist Edemariam traces a century of Ethiopian history through the life — and distinctive voice — of her nonagenarian grandmother, Yetemegnu...If Edemariam creates a sense of intimacy by imagining her grandmother’s innermost thoughts, she also brings history alive with her gift for vivid description.
To read Aida Edemariam’s The Wife’s Tale is to savour the life of her grandmother, Yetemegnu. It is a life scented with ginger and garlic, cardamom and basil, which spans emperors, revolutions, invasion, conquest and liberation. Rather than cataloguing Ethiopia’s turbulent modern history, Ms Edemariam stitches together the fragmentary memories and experiences of a single woman
Edemariam anchors the book in these mundane rhythms, setting them against a vividly realized landscape…Political turmoil sweeps in like a dream…The book elegantly collapses the distance between the vast and the intimate, showing how history reaches even the most sheltered.”
[Like Chaucer’s Wife of Bath] Aida Edemariam’s sublimely crafted tribute to her grandmother also involves sparring storytellers, religion and the happiness and sovereignty of married women…Intimate history meets the sweep of imperial history when Yetemegnu finds the courage to resist…Yet the role that Yetemegnu finally inhabits is not that of mother but storyteller…Her story is certainly cracked open in the telling, so assured and transcendent, it could win Chaucerian contests.
Adjoa Andoh expertly narrates the author’s memoir of her grandmother’s life, spanning twentieth-century Ethiopia. The narrative jumps between childbirth, politics, and religion, but any confusion is allayed by Andoh’s many vocal inflections. In a setting where women’s roles are limited (the “wife” here is Yetemegnu, who is 8 years old at her marriage), the rituals of home are paramount. As Edemariam provides vivid descriptions of foods and their preparation and Yetemegnu’s care of her husband and children, Andoh brings these details to life with a deft command of Amharic phrases. Ultimately, the illiterate Yetemegnu is granted an audience with Emperor Haile Selassie to clear her husband’s name and to fight for her land. Andoh narrates these scenes in a manner that belies Yetemegnu’s supposed powerlessness. M.P.P. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine
2018-01-08
A Guardian journalist tells the story of her Ethiopian grandmother's remarkable life.In this ambitious, elegantly descriptive, but occasionally disjointed narrative, Edemariam interweaves the story of her grandmother Yetemegnu's eventful life with the tumultuous history of Ethiopia. Yetemegnu was born in the northern Ethiopian city of Gondar in 1916. Born into a well-respected family, she was married off to Tsèga, a 30-year-old "nonentity" of a priest "from the sticks" of neighboring Gojjam before she was 10 years old. Against expectation, however, Tsèga proved his worth to Yetemegnu's family by petitioning for, and earning, the position of chief priest of Gondar from the Ethiopian empress at the time, Zewditu, a year after his marriage. Edemariam's grandmother saw her husband's fortunes rise with the coming of a new ruler, the Emperor Haile Selassie, as she entered motherhood in her early teens. By the time she had given birth to her sixth child and buried a son, Italy had invaded Ethiopia and declared war on its former "ally in the Horn of Africa," Britain. After Italy left and Selassie returned from exile, Yetemegnu witnessed her husband's fall from political grace, his imprisonment for supposed "plots against the emperor," and his death shortly after his release. The newly widowed mother of nine fought to successfully convince the emperor to restore her land that Tsèga's enemies had stripped from her family while stubbornly refusing to remarry. Yetemegnu then watched her children begin lives in lands as far away as Canada while Ethiopia descended into a long and bitter civil war. At times profoundly lyrical and other times fractured and difficult to follow, Edemariam's book offers a glimpse into a singularly fascinating culture and history as it celebrates the courage, resilience, and grace of an extraordinary woman.A flawed but richly evocative tale of family and international history.
Product Details
| BN ID: | 2940173439734 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | HarperCollins |
| Publication date: | 03/20/2018 |
| Edition description: | Unabridged |
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