The Beautiful Things that Heaven Bears by Dinaw Mengestu

Part of the TALK series, Friends and Neighbors
Discussion Leader: Kevin Rabas

Ethiopian shopkeeper Sepha Stephanos states, "I was hit with the sudden terrible and frightening realization that everything I cared for and loved was either lost or living on without me seven thousand miles away, and that what I had here was not a life, but a poorly constructed substitution made up of one uncle, two friends, a grim store, and a cheap apartment." This novel follows Stephanos as he chronicles his life in the rapidly gentrifying Washington D.C. neighborhood of Logan Circle and his path there from war torn Ethiopia as a young man in the 1970s. The story is about the pain of exile, a changing neighborhood, and friendships forged and lost. Though his friendship with two other African immigrants help ease his transition, it is the companionship of Judith and her bi-racial 11-year-old daughter Naomi that transform his world into something hopeful.

Sponsored by: Augusta Public Library

For more information about this event, please contact:
Alisha Williams
(316) 775-2681
http://www.augustapubliclibrary.com