“A book about listening” is how Aida Edemariam described The Wife’s Tale, which chronicles the
compelling life story of her grandmother, Yetemegnu, who lived through invasion, occupation, civil
war and revolution in her native city of Gondar, Ethiopia.
Edemariam, certainly undertook a lot of listening during the process of researching the
book. She told the Hay audience how she collected hours of recordings of her grandmother’s
anecdotes, painstakingly transcribing and translating them all into English. But it was a story that
demanded to be told, unearthing a history that is perhaps not widely known.
The writer spoke of a desire for Ethiopia’s history to exist “on its own terms”, told through the lens of her grandmother’s
experiences rather than having to be explained to the reader.
The book spans the Italian invasion of Ethiopia in 1935, Marxist dictatorship during the 1970s and the famine of 1984.
Alongside these historical milestones, the biography also offers a deeply personal insight into Yetemegnu’s life.
Married at the age of eight to a priest two decades her senior, she was a child thrust into adulthood and a role as mistress of the house, and through her lifetime experienced marriage, motherhood, the loss of children and widowhood.
Edemariam remarked that having a daughter herself provided her with a new level of sympathy and understanding of “what she felt and
what she saw”. It also proved to be a reflection of the thoughts, sights and sounds of her own childhood in Ethiopia.
If you missed this, you may enjoy Event 323: Fergal Keane, Wounds: A Memoir of War and Love at 2.30pm on Friday 1 June.
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