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Maaza Mengiste

Maaza Mengiste is a Fulbright scholar and the author of Beneath the Lion's Gaze named by the Guardian as one of the 10 best contemporary African books. She is a writer on the documentary Girl Rising and is currently finishing her next novel

May 2023

  • Fishing nets in Fort Kochi, Kerala

    Book of the day
    The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese review – a curse in Kerala

    Water affects a family’s fate in this enthralling epic from the physician-author, set across three generations

October 2021

  • Abdulrazak Gurnah, who has been awarded the Nobel prize in literature, in London on Friday.

    Abdulrazak Gurnah: where to start with the Nobel prize winner

    Novelist Maaza Mengiste on how the Nobel laureate has explored exile in all its forms throughout his career

May 2021

  • Review cover image 28th May 2021 Books in a pile with stickies making a smile

    Dreaming of a better future? Ali Smith, Malcolm Gladwell and more on books to inspire change

    As our thoughts turn to life after the pandemic, authors from this year’s Hay festival choose books that have inspired lasting change in them

November 2020

  • Booker shortlist

    On the brink of a Booker: 2020's shortlisted authors on the stories behind their novels

    With the winner due to be announced next week, the six novelists up for the Booker prize reveal their inspirations

October 2020

  • US flag with arrows for Review magazine cover

    'How do we become a serious people again?' Dave Eggers, Annie Proulx and more on the 2020 election

    How is America faring after four years of Donald Trump? Which way will voters turn? US authors including Richard Powers, Ocean Vuong and Kiley Reid share their hopes and fears

September 2020

  • GERMANY-COLONIALISM-MUSEUM<br>A uniform for “Askaris” (local colonial troops in German east Africa) is on display in a newly created section on German colonialism in the permanent exhibition of the German Historical Museum (DHM) in Berlin on August 14, 2020. - German colonial efforts only began in 1884 with the Scramble for Africa which allowed the newly unified German empire to build the third-largest colonial empire at the time, after the British and French, mainly in east Africa, south-west Africa and Cameroon. Germany’s colonial empire was officially confiscated with the Treaty of Versailles (1919) after Germany’s defeat in the first world war. (Photo by John MACDOUGALL / AFP) / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE - MANDATORY MENTION OF THE ARTIST UPON PUBLICATION - TO ILLUSTRATE THE EVENT AS SPECIFIED IN THE CAPTION (Photo by JOHN MACDOUGALL/AFP via Getty Images)

    Book of the day
    Afterlives by Abdulrazak Gurnah review – living through colonialism

    This compelling novel focuses on those enduring German rule in East Africa at the beginning of the twentieth century

August 2020

  • Incontri di Civilta - Portraits<br>VENICE, ITALY - APRIL 18: Writer Maaza Mengiste poses for a portrait session during 'Incroci di civilta', Venice Literary Festival on April 18, 2012 in Venice, Italy. (Photo by Barbara Zanon/Getty Images)

    Books that made me
    Maaza Mengiste: 'Knausgård really doesn’t need me as a reader, I can move on'

    The Booker nominated author on the influence of Homer, struggling with Moby-Dick and feeling changed by Ama Ata Aidoo

January 2020

  • Ethiopian war veterans attend a memorial service commemorating the anniversary of the Addis Ababa Massacre of 1937, in Addis Ababa on February 19, 2018.

    Top 10s
    From Homer to Alexievich: top 10 books about the human cost of war

    The novelist explains how literature illuminates soldiers’ experience, and how it helped her depict the women who fought Mussolini in Ethiopia

September 2015

  • Prince Alemayehu

    A week in Africa
    This Ethiopian prince was kidnapped by Britain – now it must release him

    Maaza Mengiste
    Seven-year-old Prince Alemayehu was captured – along with many national treasures – in 1868. His remains are held in Windsor Castle but pleas for their return have been rebuffed

November 2014

  • Tower of London poppy installation

    Does going to see the Tower of London poppies mean anything?

    Maaza Mengiste
    Maaza Mengiste: I believe we need to look at images of violence. But at least this artwork says human beings existed and haven’t been forgotten

July 2014

  • Vulture Watching Starving Child

    We must not look away from the crises in Africa

    Maaza Mengiste
    Maaza Mengiste: A single photo focused the world’s attention on Sudan in 93. As Gaza and MH17 dominate, Africa’s horrors remain invisible

September 2013

  • Italian Soldiers abyssinia

    Italy's racism is embedded

    Maaza Mengiste

    Maaza Mengiste: The shocking abuse of minister Cécile Kyenge stems from the country's failure to face up to its past

July 2013

  • Map of Africa

    What makes a 'real African'?

    Maaza Mengiste
    Maaza Mengiste: Too often the continent's writers are quizzed about their identity rather than the world they create

June 2013

  • A man with his family travel on a home boat near garbage plants in the Egyptian Nile River in Cairo

    Poverty matters blog
    The Nile belongs to Ethiopia too

    Maaza Mengiste

    Maaza Mengiste: The increasing tensions with Egypt over the proposed dam reveal how fundamental the river is to both nations' identity

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