A journalist finds himself embroiled in a disastrous government campaign as well as a sweeping romance in this landmark English translation of Ethiopia’s most famous novel.
An engrossing political thriller and a tale of love and war for readers of John Le Carré and Philip Kerr.
December 1981, Ethiopia. Tsegaye Hailemaryam, a well-known journalist for the state-run media, has just landed in Asmara. He is on assignment as the head of propaganda for the Red Star campaign, a massive effort by the Ethiopian government to end the Eritrean insurgency. There, amid the city’s bars and coffeehouses buzzing with spies and government agents, he juggles the demands of his superiors while trying to reassure his fiancée back home that he’s not straying with Asmara’s famed beauties.
As Tsegaye falls in love with Asmara—and, in spite of his promises, with dazzling, enigmatic local woman Fiammetta—his misgivings about the campaign grow. Tsegaye confronts the horror of war when he is sent with an elite army unit to attack the insurgents’ mountain stronghold. In the aftermath, he encounters betrayals that shake his faith in both the regime and human nature.
Oromay became an instant sensation when first published in 1983 and was swiftly banned for its frank depiction of the regime. The author vanished soon thereafter; the consensus is that he was murdered in retaliation for Oromay. A sweeping and timeless story about power and betrayal in love and war, the novel remains Girma’s masterpiece.
Genre: Thriller
An engrossing political thriller and a tale of love and war for readers of John Le Carré and Philip Kerr.
December 1981, Ethiopia. Tsegaye Hailemaryam, a well-known journalist for the state-run media, has just landed in Asmara. He is on assignment as the head of propaganda for the Red Star campaign, a massive effort by the Ethiopian government to end the Eritrean insurgency. There, amid the city’s bars and coffeehouses buzzing with spies and government agents, he juggles the demands of his superiors while trying to reassure his fiancée back home that he’s not straying with Asmara’s famed beauties.
As Tsegaye falls in love with Asmara—and, in spite of his promises, with dazzling, enigmatic local woman Fiammetta—his misgivings about the campaign grow. Tsegaye confronts the horror of war when he is sent with an elite army unit to attack the insurgents’ mountain stronghold. In the aftermath, he encounters betrayals that shake his faith in both the regime and human nature.
Oromay became an instant sensation when first published in 1983 and was swiftly banned for its frank depiction of the regime. The author vanished soon thereafter; the consensus is that he was murdered in retaliation for Oromay. A sweeping and timeless story about power and betrayal in love and war, the novel remains Girma’s masterpiece.
Genre: Thriller
Praise for this book
"Oromay by Baalu Girma is a fictionalized account of one of the deadliest episodes of Ethiopia's war against Eritrea. . . Against a backdrop of divided allegiances, a treacherous world of espionage and bureaucratic nightmare, a love affair is born but the violence, tyranny and corruption surrounding the couple threaten to devour everything they hold dear. Oromay, a novel widely believed to have cost its author his life, is a prayer against war, oppression and the erosion of our humanity. David DeGusta and Mesfin Felleke Yirgu did an outstanding job, giving the world access to one of the most important and enduring works of literature in Ethiopia." - Djamila Ibrahim
"Reading Baalu Girma's novel Oromay sent me back to the time when I first watched the film Casablanca. No, it's not about the similarity of the plot. It's the same surefire set of ingredients that draws you into the story and makes you empathize with the characters. Eritrea in the 1980s, war, junta, coffee shops where local spies and CIA agents drink coffee, a love story . . . A gripping novel that has 'documentary' flavor." - Andrey Kurkov
"Oromay is an astonishing and compelling tale of revolution and betrayal. It is also the story of Tsegaye - witty, observant, and dedicated - who finds love at the same time as he discovers how dangerous his world really is. Written with breathtaking psychological precision, Baalu Girma's novel is still frighteningly relevant today. Oromay is impossible to put down. As the last book ever written before Baalu Girma disappeared, what you have before you is also an uncompromising testimony to the power of words to outlast regimes. Oromay is a gift to a new generation of readers." - Maaza Mengiste
"Oromay is a startling, intimate and gripping saga of war-time Ethiopia turned topsy-turvy. Its cast of quirky characters, as quick to spout revolutionary rhetoric as to deploy cutthroat maneuvers, imbues the narrative with tension, humor and dramatic heft. This fierce but also tender-hearted story unveils a revolution being hollowed out by the hypocrisies, cheap sloganeering and moral fudginess of its ostensible stewards. In his brave dissection of rampaging power and evasive language, Girma recalls George Orwell and Aldous Huxley." - Okey Ndibe
"Reading Baalu Girma's novel Oromay sent me back to the time when I first watched the film Casablanca. No, it's not about the similarity of the plot. It's the same surefire set of ingredients that draws you into the story and makes you empathize with the characters. Eritrea in the 1980s, war, junta, coffee shops where local spies and CIA agents drink coffee, a love story . . . A gripping novel that has 'documentary' flavor." - Andrey Kurkov
"Oromay is an astonishing and compelling tale of revolution and betrayal. It is also the story of Tsegaye - witty, observant, and dedicated - who finds love at the same time as he discovers how dangerous his world really is. Written with breathtaking psychological precision, Baalu Girma's novel is still frighteningly relevant today. Oromay is impossible to put down. As the last book ever written before Baalu Girma disappeared, what you have before you is also an uncompromising testimony to the power of words to outlast regimes. Oromay is a gift to a new generation of readers." - Maaza Mengiste
"Oromay is a startling, intimate and gripping saga of war-time Ethiopia turned topsy-turvy. Its cast of quirky characters, as quick to spout revolutionary rhetoric as to deploy cutthroat maneuvers, imbues the narrative with tension, humor and dramatic heft. This fierce but also tender-hearted story unveils a revolution being hollowed out by the hypocrisies, cheap sloganeering and moral fudginess of its ostensible stewards. In his brave dissection of rampaging power and evasive language, Girma recalls George Orwell and Aldous Huxley." - Okey Ndibe
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