Can I read The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears on EtoBox?

The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears by Dinaw Mengestu, Dinaw Mengestu, Anne Wicke is a work of fiction available to read on EtoBox.

What is The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears about?

From Publishers Weekly Starred Review. Barely suppressed despair and black wit infuse this beautifully observed debut from Ethiopian émigré Mengestu. Set over eight months in a gentrifying Washington, D.C., neighborhood in the 1970s, it captures an uptick in Ethiopian grocery store owner Sepha Stephanos's long-deferred hopes, as Judith, a white academic, fixes up the four-story house next to his apartment building, treats him to dinner and lets him steal a kiss. Just as unexpected is Sepha's friendship with Judith's biracial 11-year-old daughter, Naomi (one of the book's most vivid characters), over a copy of The Brothers Karamazov . Mengestu adds chiaroscuro with the story of Stephanos's 17-year exile from his family and country following his father's murder by revolutionary soldiers. After long days in the dusty, barely profitable shop, Sepha's two friends, Joseph from Congo and Kenneth from Kenya, joke with Sepha about African dictators and gently mock his romantic aspirations, while the neighborhood's loaded racial politics hang over Sepha and Judith's burgeoning relationship like a sword of Damocles. The novel's dirge-like tone may put off readers looking for the next Kit

Who reads The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears?

Author

Dinaw Mengestu, Dinaw Mengestu, Anne Wicke

Publisher

Penguin Books

Published

2006

Language

EN

ISBN

9781594489402

Category

work of fiction

Subjects

Fiction, Literary Fiction

Rating

3.65 / 5 (589 ratings)

Updated

2026-03-14