BookBrowse Reviews The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears: A deeply affecting and unforgettable debut novel about what it means to lose a family and a country, and what it takes to create a new home

A pervading sense of low-level despair, so long present that it has become his accepted state, pervades the voice of Sepha Stephanos, the narrator of Mengestu's first novel. For most of the 17-years Sepha has been in the USA he has run a convenience store in the Logan Circle area of Washington DC, at first with enthusiasm that this would be his first step towards achieving the immigrant dream, but in recent years with an increasing sense of despondency and hopelessness.

In the early 90s a degree of hope enters his life when the run-down building next to his rented rooms is bought by a white woman who quickly renovates it to its former glory, in the process rubbing salt in the wounds of the long time residents of the neighborhood who bitterly resent the gentrification process that is causing many...