Books set in Eritrea

About the literature of Eritrea

Very little writing from Eritrea has reached English readers, and most of what has is memoir. Writers there work in Tigrinya, Arabic and other languages, Ge'ez remains the classical language of the Orthodox church, and the private press was closed in 2001. The recurring subjects are the thirty-year war for independence, which ended in 1991, and the disappointments that came after it.

In The Crown and the Pen, Bereket Habte Selassie traces his path from lawyer in Haile Selassie's government to rebel, following Eritrea from federation with Ethiopia into the independence struggle. Senait Mehari's Heart of Fire describes the war through a child sent to the front, and Dawit Gebremichael Habte's Gratitude in Low Voices recalls growing up during it. Ararat Iyob's Blankets of Sand, described as the first collection of Eritrean poetry written in English, writes about the war and exile. Yikealo Neab's I Will Not Grow Downward covers the indefinite national service that followed independence and the escape many young Eritreans now make. Hannah Pool's My Fathers' Daughter shows the country through the eyes of a returning adoptee who meets her family for the first time.