Home | Books By Year | Books from 1968


Love to the Grave

Buy Love to the Grave now from Amazon

First, read the Wikipedia article. Then, scroll down to see what other TopShelfReviews readers thought about the book. And once you've experienced the book, tell everyone what you thought about it.

Wikipedia article




'Love to the Grave' (Amharic: ) is an Amharic novel by Haddis Alemayehu published in 1968. It is one of the best known novels in Ethiopia and is considered a classic of Ethiopian literature. The novel gained popularity largely due to its widespread dissemination on Ethiopian radio during the Derg regime. It was featured on the popular radio program "Kemetsahifit Alem" (The world of Books) by host Wegayehu Nigatu. The author himself later praised Wegayehu for quote "giving life to the characters in the story" with his narration of the novel.

An English translation, titled Love Unto Crypt, was done by Sisay Ayenew.

Plot



The books centres on a romance between the beautiful Seble, daughter of a nobleman called Meshesha. She remains unmarried as nobody is considered noble enough for her, but when a tutor arrives they fall in love. Sahle Sellassie Berhane Mariam, commissioned by Heinemann to write a report on the book ahead of a potential translation wrote:
'"Masterfully grafted to this love theme unfolds another, more serious story - the relation of the tradit1onal nobleman Meshesha and his peasant-tenants, a relation that ends in a peasants' revolt, and the subsequent humiliation of the captured Meshesha. The leader of the peasant revolt does not kill Meshesha. He prefers to make him a laughing stock to all who know him by capturing him alive and taking him to the provincial court...'

'Feker Eske Mekaber [Love Unto Death] is not only the longest Amharic novel so far written (about 106,000 words), but also the best in many ways. The language is clear and beautiful although sometimes ecclesiastical jargons that are inevitably sprayed here and there are difficult to understand for those readers (including myself) unfamiliar with Geez, the classical Ethiopian language. Otherwise the words are vivid and reveal the imaginative grasp of the author...'

'For the post war Ethiopian generation Feker Eske Mekaber is a social history; a social history that is groaning under the pressures of modernity, but that is not totally dead and buried.'

'A proper translation of the book into English and some other languages will reveal that the theme is closer to the social-setting of Europe and Russia of the pre-industrial era than to that of the present day Africa. It bears no resemblance to the themes developed by other [African] writers of today."'


Reception



The novel is one of the most famous in Ethiopia. It is particularly popular among those individuals who lived through the 1970s and 80's during the Derg regime, during which it was once narrated over the radio. A music video titled "Mar eske Twauf" by the award winning Ethiopian music star Teddy Afro based on this novel was released on YouTube.

References



Relevant literature



Abakano, Bezaye. 2010. 'Dynamic Equivalence and Formal Correspondence in Sisay Ayenews "Love Unto Crypt".' Addis Ababa University: MA thesis. [http://etd.aau.edu.et/bitstream/handle/123456789/6356/Bezaye%20Abakano.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y Online access]

Category:1968 novels

Category:Ethiopian books

Category:Amharic-language books

Buy Love to the Grave now from Amazon

<-- Return to books from 1968



This work is released under CC-BY-SA. Some or all of this content attributed to http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1053385392.