The God Who Begat a Jackal

The God Who Begat a Jackal, Nega Mezlekia’s much-anticipated first novel and follow-up to his riveting memoir Notes from the Hyena’s Belly, is a story of doomed love set in feudal Ethiopia in the last days of premodern Africa. It is a time when caste-system slavery is essential to the economy, women are married by force at the age of 12, and warlords run their fiefdoms with the fitful tyranny of petty despots. Mezlekia’s heroine, Aster, is the only child of one of these aristocrats, the ambitious Count Ashenafi. Aster is an extraordinary child: she is clairvoyant, can walk through walls, and possesses an unparalleled intellect. Her fiercely protective father cloisters her under perpetual guard and dismisses all of her would-be suitors. Inevitably, Aster falls in love with her guard, Gudu, the count’s court poet, and together they set out to record Gudu’s immense knowledge of his country’s poetic tradition. But their affair is soon discovered, resulting in bitter intrigue and civil war.