New novelist

Dinaw Mengestu immigrated to the United States from Ethiopia in 1980 and last year published his first novel, THE BEAUTIFUL THINGS THAT HEAVEN BEARS, a short powerful novel about three friends from Africa trying to lead lives in this country. The protagonist, Sepha Stephanos, is an Ethiopian grocery store owner in a slowly gentrifying Washington DC neighborhood. He and two friends, one from Congo and one from Kenya, gather often to talk about their experiences leaving Africa and coming to America. Sepha's quiet life changes when Judith, a mother with a biracial child buys the large house next door and moves in. As these characters interact, ideas of place, home, belonging and race all come into play. In it's starred review, Publishers Weekly called Mengestu's prose "assured" and "haunting."