Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer's Reviews > The Lost Spell

I have no idea how many days I spent in this corn-feld. I no longer count the days; just grateful to have survived one day and moved on to the next. It wasn't just an unseasonal rain that caught me off guard, it was also an unseasonal situation. Sadly, this is not only my fate but also the nation's-living day to day. I imagined the nation being robbed of her harvest by unseasonal rain; an unseasonal ideology forcing a crown of thorns on her head; being ruled by an unseasonal leader. Hasn't this nation stood amongst the greatest on earth?-now it is less than the least. Like me, Her people have been dehumanized and joined the realm of dogs: carried along by the whim of the flood. As a twig once fallen into a torrent has no direction of its own, so are the people of this nation. However, we are not to give up.

This book was originally published in 2013, written in Amharic by the bestselling Ethiopian author Yismake Worku and was then translated by the Addis Ababa born, Birmingham University based contemporary literary translator Bethlehem Attfield, crowdfunded (including by my twin brother) on Unbound and published in their usual high quality production style by the “microbrewery for books” Henningham Press.

It is told in the form of a relatively simple fable. The first party narrator – Didimis Dore successful businessman but also son of Selassie-era researcher into ancient magic and inheritor of some secret scrolls, has accidentally turned himself into a (feral) dog in the South of the country and now has to travel back to Addis Ababa to get back his wife and children and find the scrolls which may allow him to reverse the spell. While travelling he resolves to use his lower status to listen in on private conversations about the political situation.

The book then becomes a mix of different elements of, at least for me as a reader, fairly variable success:

The tale of Didimis’s adaption to life as a dog – this was I felt the weakest element at times more like a children’s book (with a odd side-track into bestality) and unfortunately dominates the opening 70 pages (or first third) of the book.

Something of a travellogue through Southern Ethiopia as in each town we learn something of the local legends, history of the town and how it features in older poems or modern songs – this was interesting and raises the middle third or so of the novel (albeit I felt more detail may have been better here).

A revenge story in the final third when Didimis finally returns to Addis Ababa to find his wife has betrayed him with his deadly enemy – which is clearly signalled as a part analogy for Ethiopia’s shift from Soviet to US support.

Overheard conversations on the political situation in Ethiopia in 2012 around the unexpected death of Meles Zenawi (Prime Minister since 1995 having been President from 1991-1995) in Belgium – these I felt were at times rather clumsily executed with overheard speech for example “As this prime minister has not been a guerilla fighter like many of the others in the ruling party I had hoped he would not be as aggressive. Although I didn't expect he would bring about a genuine change, at least I hoped he would be less about lip-service and more about actual development. I had also hoped that he would please the public by releasing political prisoners.”

Some for me more successful (albeit in some cases such rather heavy handed) allegorical political commentary including (as per the opening quote to my review) the meta-conceit of the novel

A longer term perspective on how Ethiopia’s situation contrasts to its history both in the 19th-20th Centuries “once a symbol of independence and the pride of fellow black people”, further back to the Aksumite empire and even to the Kingdom of Kush and its legendary biblical links including around the Ark of the Covenant.

This latter in particular I found the most interesting element of the novel – for example the way in which the world of magic developed via the line of Cain to Kush only to be later supressed both in New Testament and colonial times and it links to also the most interesting theme of the novel – about the power of words.

Words should not be used inappropriately. One has to be discerning about when and how, or if it is wise to use them at all. Words can change men into dogs but they can also restore their humanity. Words can bring about good things, but they can also take them away. Words can simply extinguish the light, but they can also illuminate darkness. They can enrich people's lives, or they can impoverish them. My tongue and lips will be preserved from uttering inappropriate words. I know the power of words from first-hand experience. Words have changed me into a dog, but they have also restored me again, to become human.

Overall I had a mixed experience on reading this novel – and felt the relative mix of the different elements was out of line with my personal appreciation of them.