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AUTHOR Dinaw Mengestu’s fourth novel Someone Like Us is set to hit the shelves on July 30.
The book tells the story of Mamush, who returns to Washington DC’s close-knit, immigrant Ethiopian community to reunite with his mother and father figure Samuel, only to find the latter mysteriously dead in his garage. The tragic event pushes Mamush to embark on a journey to unravel the secrets of his family and resolve the sudden passing of Samuel.
Dinaw is dedicated to delivering migrant tales in his books. He revealed that the upcoming novel is set to revolve around Samuel’s life in Ethiopia, Europe and America.
“As much as the narrator might want to understand Samuel, there’s also a sense that there’s a limitation to how fully we can truly understand his experiences,” he said in an interview. “And for me, that’s a kind of respect for Samuel’s enigmatic quality and the complexity of the characters. That gap becomes part of the narrative, part of what the story is trying to deeply engage with.”
