Book Club: ‘The Shadow King’

Nerdette

WBEZ

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4.7 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 25 September 2020

⏱️ 43 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Welcome to the Nerdette Book Club! Each month, we read a book and chat about it with a rotating group of panelists. This month’s pick is Maaza Mengiste’s historical novel The Shadow King.

It’s based on the true story of the Italian invasion of Ethiopia in the mid-1930s. Against Italian Prime Minister Benito Musolinni’s technologically-advanced army, the citizens of feudal Ethiopia didn’t seem to have a chance. But they eventually overcame— and they had the help of a number of forgotten female fighters.

Listen along as Nerdette host Greta Johnsen discusses the book with Lydia Levy, founder of the African literature review website Omusana. She also has a doctorate in African Studies from Howard University.

And then get ready for next month’s pick: Can’t Even: How Millennials Became the Burnout Generation by Anne Helen Petersen.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This fall, W bez invites you to our upcoming live events.
0:05.0	Join us in person for smart discussions, heartfelt storytelling, and more.
0:09.0	Check out the full calendar now at W be easy.org slash events.
0:15.6	From W be easy Chicago I'm Greta Johnson and you are listening to the
0:21.1	Nerd at Book Club which is just like a normal book club, except you get to read the book whenever you want, which I guess maybe means it's not like a book club at all. But anyway, regardless, we are glad to have you with us today. This month we are talking about
0:34.1	Maasam and Gistes novel The Shadow King. As I say it is a novel but it's based on some very
0:39.3	real history. It's about the Italian invasion of Ethiopia in 1935 and the scrappy army of
0:46.5	underdogs who fought them, some of whom were actually women. Critics loved this book. The NPR Review called The Shadow King a gorgeous
0:55.4	meditation on memory, war, and violence and it's actually also shortlisted for
1:01.2	the Booker Prize for this year. So there is a spoiler-free
1:04.7	interview with the author, Maza, in the feed. So if you haven't read the book yet
1:09.0	and you don't want to hear any spoilers. That's a great place to start.
1:13.7	If you haven't read the book and you love spoilers
1:16.2	and you want to tag along, that's great.
1:17.8	We are glad to have you.
1:19.4	And just know that we are about to unpack
1:22.1	the entirety of this book. Today I'm joined by Lydia
1:25.9	Lee Vee who's the founder of the Omusana Review that's a website dedicated to
1:30.2	literature about Africa. She's also got a doctorate in African studies from Howard University and has
1:35.9	studied a lot about African culture and development. Lydia, hi.
1:40.8	Thank you Greta. Thank you so much for having me on the show and I'm very excited to discuss this great book.
1:47.5	I am so excited to talk with you about the Shadow King.
	...

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