The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears
 

The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears

by Dinaw Mengestu

Seventeen years ago, Sepha Stephanos fled the Ethiopian Revolution after witnessing soldiers beat his father to the point of certain death, selling off his parents' jewelry to pay for passage to the United States. Now he finds himself running a grocery store in a poor African-American neighborhood in Washington, D.C. His only companions are two fellow African immigrants who share his feelings... (read more)

Top tags: africafiction2008immigrant experienceimmigrants (all tags)

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Other Reviews

Amazon Reviews (4)
 

Most Helpful Reviews

Liked It

Cyndee L
  • Rated 4 stars

Don't know if I loved, but I did like it a lot. It may take some time for me to digest it before I can make that assessment.

Mengestu makes quite a few insightful points about immigrants' lives, gentrification and socioeconomics in the US. Sometimes the plotting was slow and wondering, but the author (like his protagonist) did stay the course and find a clear ending.

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Didn’t Like It

Stacy
  • Rated 2 stars

A thought provoking book. The plot was not overly interesting, but that was not the point. Overall: glad I read it, but not wild enough about it to read it again.

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Community:
  • Rated 3.702703 stars
Amazon:
  • Rated 4.25 stars
 

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