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Published Mar 2014
272 pages
Genre: Literary Fiction
Publication Information
From Dinaw Mengestu, a recipient of the National Book Foundation's 5 under 35 Award, the New Yorker's 20 under 40 Award, and a 2012 MacArthur Foundation genius grant, comes a novel about exile, about the loneliness and fragmentation of lives that straddle countries and histories.
All Our Names is the story of a young man who comes of age during an African revolution, drawn from the hushed halls of his university into the intensifying clamor of the streets outside. But as the line between idealism and violence becomes increasingly blurred, and the path of revolution leads to almost certain destruction, he leaves behind his country and friends for America. There, pretending to be an exchange student, he falls in love with a social worker and settles into the routines of small-town life. Yet this idyll is inescapably darkened by the secrets of his past: the acts he committed and the work he left unfinished. Most of all, he is haunted by the charismatic leader who first guided him to revolution and then sacrificed everything to ensure his freedom.
Subtle, intelligent, and quietly devastating, All Our Names is a novel about identity, about the names we are given and the names we earn. The emotional power of Mengestu's work is indelible.
"Starred Review, Pick of the Week. Mengestu portrays the intersection of cultures experienced by the immigrant with unsettling perception" - Publishers Weekly
"Starred Review. Weighted with sorrow and gravitas, another superb story by Mengestu, who is among the best novelists now at work in America." - Kirkus
"The author highlights the dense slums of Kampala with the same intensity as he does the flatness of his midwestern farm town. But Mengestu is less interested in photographing a particular historical moment than he is fascinated by the dangers each setting imposes upon his vulnerable protagonists and their fragile relationships." - Booklist
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Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Blair Fethers
Dinaw Mengestuwas born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in 1978. In 1980 he immigrated to the United States with his mother and sister, joining his father, who had fled the communist revolution in Ethiopia two years before.
He has written for Rolling Stone on the war in Darfur, and for Jane Magazine on the conflict in northern Uganda. His writing has also appeared in Harper's, The Wall Street Journal, and numerous other publications. He is Lannan Chair of Poetics at Georgetown University.
His works include The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears (2007), How to Read the Air (2010), and All Our Names (2014). He was selected by The New Yorker as one of their "20 under 40" writers of 2010. The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears, was named a New York Times Notable Book and awarded the Guardian First ...
... Full Biography
Author Interview
Link to Dinaw Mengestu's Website
Name Pronunciation
Dinaw Mengestu: dih-now men-guess-too
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