Description
Book SynopsisA powerful and moving summer read that explores love, grief and the reality of the contemporary American immigrant experience
Jonas, fresh from a failed marriage, is desperate to make sense of the ties that have forged him. How can he dream of a future when he can''t make sense of his past? He hits the road, tracing the route that his parents - young Ethiopians in search of an identity as an American couple - took thirty years earlier to Nashville, Tennessee.
In a stunning display of imagination he weaves together a history that takes him from the war-torn Ethiopia of his parents'' youth to a brighter vision of his own life in contemporary America, a story - real or invented- that holds the possibility of reconciliation and redemption.
A story of exile and redemption, beautifully written' The Times
Trade ReviewA straight-forward, compassionate, keenly sensitive observer of real life -- James Lasdun * Guardian *
A story of exile and redemption, beautifully written -- Kate Saunders * The Times *
[Mengestu has] pulled off a narrative sleight of hand, weaving two - or is it three? - beautiful fictions, while reminding us subtly that the most seductive may be the least true * Los Angeles Times *
How To Read the Air is deeply thought out, deliberate in its craftsmanship and in many parts beautifully written...remarkably talented -- Miguel Syjuco * The Scotsman *
Challenging -- Peter Carty * Independent *
