Abyssinian Chronicles: A Novel

By Moses Isegawa

Every once in a while there emerges a literary voice with the power and urgency to immerse readers deep within a previously "invisible" culture. From a young African writer who has already earned comparisons to Salman Rushdie and Gabriel Garcia Marquez comes this masterful saga of life in 20th-century Uganda.

The teller of this panoramic tale is Mugezi, a quick-witted, sharp-eyed man whose life encompasses the traditional and the modern, the peaceful and the insanely violent, the despotic and the democratic. Born in a rural community in the early 1960s, he is raised by his grandfather, a deposed clan chief, and his great-aunt, or "grandmother," after his parents immigrate to the capital city of Kampala. At age nine, he leaves behind his secure life in the village to join his parents and siblings in the city, where he is first exposed to the despotism and hardship that he will contend with in the years to come.

The nightmare reign of Idi Amin and its chaotic aftermath are the backdrop to Mugezi's troubled coming-of-age: his constant struggle with his harsh mother and austere father; his years spent as caregiver to his parents' ever-growing brood of children; his sojourn in a horrifically repressive Catholic seminary. He goes to work as a high school teacher, becomes enmeshed in a tragic romance, finds himself drawn into a dubious, potentially dangerous alliance with the military after Amin's fall and witnesses the widespread ravages of the AIDS virus. Finally, sickened by personal loss and national tragedy, he manages to immigrate to Amsterdam.

The details of Mugezi's life provide a foundation for Isegawa's brilliant and profoundly illuminating portrait of the contemporary, postcolonial African experience. Filled with extraordinary characters, animated by a wicked sense of humor and guided by an intense yet clear-eyed compassion, Abyssianian Chronicles is our introduction to a superlative new writer.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Apr 13, 2011
• ISBN: 9780307787804

Moses Isegawa

Moses Isegawa was born in 1963 in Kampala, Uganda. The author of Abyssinian Chronicles and Snakepit, both published by Picador, he now has Dutch nationality and lives near Amsterdam.

Reviews for Abyssinian Chronicles

[kakadoo202 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Good report about the political situation in Uganda. People are pretty realistic. Not black and white but many grey zones. Some of the writing was excellent and then there were some trivial parts.

[fpdc_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

First published in dutch in 1998 under the title Abessijnse Kronieken, this book soon achieved notority, and a number of translations into several european languages, including this portuguese one, have been printed. Several critics have claimed this novel a landmark in african literature and a book of universal import. Whatever the veredict of time concerning its standing as part of the canon, this is certainly a powerful novel, telling the saga of a Ugandan man (the narrator) and of his family through the last half of the twentieth century. A grand canvas of live in Uganda, but also a mirror of a large part of sub-saharian Africa: a blunt tale of misery, despair, hope and achievement amid a turbulent childhood, a castrating Catholic education, brutal dictatorships, mercyless wars, and the wretch brought about by the AIDS epidemic. Written in a lively style evoking powerful images, one reads quickly and effortlessly through the five hundred plus pages of this absorbing book just to feel sad when it finally ends...

[conniejo_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

As much as I loved the first half of this book, the fact that I almost quit reading it several times through the second half after it lost nearly all its steam made me dislike it far more than I should.After reading The Last King of Scotland not long ago, I thought I'd try a different take on the 70s situation in Uganda. This one focused more on the citizens than it did on the government, specifically a narrator who grew up through the dictatorship and government overthrows.The book starts off explaining the background information on the narrator's family, including his father and grandfather, in their small village. The first half of the book is almost strictly on the narrator's life and his family. The accounts of his daily life both in the village and in Kampala and the Seminary are both interesting and funny, since the narrator tends to enjoy outsmarting people who he disagrees with. The government situation doesn't enter into the first part much at all save for when it directly affects the family's life, such as the house his mother and father get in Kampala or his father's position at work.Once the character leaves the seminary, the second half of the book focuses heavily on the fighting between guerrilla and government soldiers and the effects on the country at large. This part was much less interesting since the narrator was playing very little part in what was going on.The second half of the book is actually quite difficult to get through because of this. It also doesn't help that the time period for all the events is fairly unclear through the entire novel, as is the age of the narrator. Occasionally the year is brought up, and occasionally Mugezi's age is also mentioned, but it's really hard to tell how much time is passing once he leaves the seminary.The final "book" was fairly interesting and entertaining once again, when the narrator leaves Uganda and winds up in Amsterdam. It seemed like the storytelling worked best when only dealing with a narrow thread of events and people.The writing style also got on my nerves sometimes. There are copious, flowery descriptions of everything. At one point, the description of a plane ride and Mugezi's mindset takes up three or four pages.Even as interested as I was in the history in the book, and as much as I liked the main character and his family, I just could not bring myself to like this book in the end.

[katie_h_11 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

In Moses Isegawa's riveting first novel, the writing is big, but the story is even bigger. It is a coming of age chronicle of post-colonial Ugandan history, as told by the narrator, who is also coming of age, Mugezi. Isegawa candidly touches on many subjects: Obote, Idi Amin, civil wars, corruption, rapes, religion, party politics, the AIDS epidemic, culture, tradition, morals, and community folklore. While much of the novel contains serious subject matter, humorous sections are abundant, and I found myself laughing out loud periodically. Early on, the author spectacularly foreshadows the deaths of two main characters, and clear parallels are drawn between the dictators of the era and the culture of the home. The text is ornate and difficult at times, but it reads like a classic. I picked out this novel, since I have traveled to Uganda, and after having read it, Isegawa is now on my list of favorite authors.