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The Shadow King
- Narrated by: Robin Miles
- Length: 16 hrs and 11 mins
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The Shadow King
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Publisher's Summary
Shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2020.
A Times Audiobook of the Week.
Ethiopia, 1935.
With the threat of Mussolini's army looming, recently orphaned Hirut struggles to adapt to her new life as a maid. Her new employer, Kidane, an officer in Emperor Haile Selassie's army, rushes to mobilise his strongest men before the Italians invade.
Hirut and the other women long to do more than care for the wounded and bury the dead. When Emperor Haile Selassie goes into exile and Ethiopia quickly loses hope, it is Hirut who offers a plan to maintain morale. But how could she have predicted her own personal war, still to come, as a prisoner of one of Italy's most vicious officers?
What the critics say
"Beautiful and devastating." (Marlon James)
"Unforgettably conveyed by the narrator Robin Miles, whose upbringing in the ethnic melting pot of New Jersey has enhanced her gift for entering into character...the listener never feels lost, only more deeply involved. It is easily the best title on the Booker 2020 longlist." (Christina Hardyment, The Times)
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What listeners say about The Shadow King
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 2021-01-17
Recommended read
Robin Miles did an incredible job of bringing these great characters to life, she hit the right balance of narrator and actor. The book itself was an amazing story, giving the reader some Ethiopian history and a reminder that so much war history is missed when the world ignores the female perspective.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- J McKenna
- 2021-06-09
The Shadow King
Once in a while you stumble on a book about a place you know little of, set in a time that precedes your lived experience. The Shadow King is a historical novel set in the years preceding the First World War, when Italy invaded Ethiopia. Masterfully written, it tells the story through several characters: some women, some men, some Ethiopian others Italians, some masters, some slaves.
It is however the story of the Ethiopian women warriors that is at the core of the book and gives it such a fascinating perspective - one that has scarcely been explored previously. A story that needed to be told, a book that needs to be read.
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1 person found this helpful