The Wife's Tale: A Personal History
Summary (from the publisher): In this indelible memoir that recalls the life of her remarkable ninety-five-year old grandmother, Guardian journalist Aida Edemariam tells the story of modern Ethiopia—a nation that would undergo a tumultuous transformation from feudalism to monarchy to Marxist revolution to democracy, over the course of one century.
Born in the northern Ethiopian city of Gondar in about 1916, Yetemegnu was married and had given birth before she turned fifteen. As the daughter of a socially prominent man, she also offered her husband, a poor yet gifted student, the opportunity to become an important religious leader.
Over the next decades Yetemegnu would endure extraordinary trials: the death of some of her children; her husband’s imprisonment; and the detention of one of her sons. She witnessed the Fascist invasion of Ethiopia and the subsequent resistance, suffered Allied bombardment and exile from her city; lived through a bloody revolution and the nationalization of her land. She gained audiences with Emperor Haile Selassie I to argue for justice for her husband, for revenge, and for her children’s security, and fought court battles to defend her assets against powerful men. But sustained, in part, by her fierce belief in the Virgin Mary and in Orthodox Christianity, Yetemegnu survived. She even learned to read, in her sixties, and eventually made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem.
Told in Yetemegnu’s enthralling voice and filled with a vivid cast of characters—emperors and empresses, priests and scholars, monks and nuns, archbishops and slaves, Marxist revolutionaries and wartime double agents—The Wife’s Tale introduces a woman both imperious and vulnerable; a mother, widow, and businesswoman whose deep faith and numerous travails never quashed her love of laughter, mischief and dancing; a fighter whose life was shaped by direct contact with the volatile events that transformed her nation.
An intimate memoir that offers a panoramic view of Ethiopia’s recent history, The Wife’s Tale takes us deep into the landscape, rituals, social classes, and culture of this ancient, often mischaracterized, richly complex, and unforgettable land—and into the heart of one indomitable woman.
Born in the northern Ethiopian city of Gondar in about 1916, Yetemegnu was married and had given birth before she turned fifteen. As the daughter of a socially prominent man, she also offered her husband, a poor yet gifted student, the opportunity to become an important religious leader.
Over the next decades Yetemegnu would endure extraordinary trials: the death of some of her children; her husband’s imprisonment; and the detention of one of her sons. She witnessed the Fascist invasion of Ethiopia and the subsequent resistance, suffered Allied bombardment and exile from her city; lived through a bloody revolution and the nationalization of her land. She gained audiences with Emperor Haile Selassie I to argue for justice for her husband, for revenge, and for her children’s security, and fought court battles to defend her assets against powerful men. But sustained, in part, by her fierce belief in the Virgin Mary and in Orthodox Christianity, Yetemegnu survived. She even learned to read, in her sixties, and eventually made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem.
Told in Yetemegnu’s enthralling voice and filled with a vivid cast of characters—emperors and empresses, priests and scholars, monks and nuns, archbishops and slaves, Marxist revolutionaries and wartime double agents—The Wife’s Tale introduces a woman both imperious and vulnerable; a mother, widow, and businesswoman whose deep faith and numerous travails never quashed her love of laughter, mischief and dancing; a fighter whose life was shaped by direct contact with the volatile events that transformed her nation.
An intimate memoir that offers a panoramic view of Ethiopia’s recent history, The Wife’s Tale takes us deep into the landscape, rituals, social classes, and culture of this ancient, often mischaracterized, richly complex, and unforgettable land—and into the heart of one indomitable woman.
Review: I received an uncorrected proof copy of this book from HarperCollins.
This memoir tells the life story of the author's grandmother, Yetemegnu, who was born in Gondar, Ethiopia in 1916 and was married at the age of nine to a man many years her senior. Yetemegnu endured numerous trials including becoming a mother at the age of 14, the death of several of her children, her husband's imprisonment, and widowhood at a young age with several young children under care. She lived through the Fascist invasion of Ethiopia, Allied bombardment, and a violent revolution. Through it all her steadfast faith and love and devotion to her family shine through.
It was shocking reading about a child married off so young that guests would assume she was the daughter of the house and would be shocked to discover she was actually the mistress. Her education stopped at the time of her marriage so she never learned to read until she was an advanced age much later in life. Although her husband was an important religious leader and a good father, he was not a man of her choosing and he raised her the young girl to be the wife he wanted, with strict rules and harsh punishment when she failed him in his eyes. For example, if she defied his orders to stay at home by venturing to a neighbor's house to borrow cooking supplies, she was beaten upon her return. Little wonder that when she finally gained independence through her husband's unfortunate death, she chose not to remarry. "How to tell him that finally she had a choice when it came to men, and she chose no?" (193).
I have read little about Ethiopia, so reading Yetemegnu's story also gave me a history lesson in the country itself and one example of what life was like there in the twentieth century. Yetemegnu's oldest son went to medical school in Canada and married a Canadian woman. It is their daughter who became the author and captured her grandmother's remarkable life story in this book. "Wife, mother - imposed roles, unquestioned and in her time unquestionable; passive, in a way, however fully inhabited and lovingly dispatched. She gave her daughters and granddaughters the chance of something different, and in making that gift separated them from her in fundamental ways" (295).
Stars: 4
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