The Wife's Tale: A Personal History

A Finalist for The Governor General’s Award for Nonfiction

“The extraordinary memoir of a woman who lived through the cataclysmic events that shaped modern Ethiopian history. The narrative, which is lovingly and expertly put together by her granddaughter, is a window into a world that would otherwise be invisible to us.” — Abraham Verghese, author of Cutting for Stone

In this indelible memoir that recalls the life of her remarkable ninety-five-year old grandmother, Guardian journalist Aida Edemariam tells the story of modern Ethiopia—a nation that would undergo a tumultuous transformation from feudalism to monarchy to Marxist revolution to democracy, over the course of one century.

Born in the northern Ethiopian city of Gondar in about 1916, Yetemegnu was married and had given birth before she turned fifteen. As the daughter of a socially prominent man, she also offered her husband, a poor yet gifted student, the opportunity to become an important religious leader.

Over the next decades Yetemegnu would endure extraordinary trials: the death of some of her children; her husband’s imprisonment; and the detention of one of her sons. She witnessed the Fascist invasion of Ethiopia and the subsequent resistance, suffered Allied bombardment and exile from her city; lived through a bloody revolution and the nationalization of her land. She gained audiences with Emperor Haile Selassie I to argue for justice for her husband, for revenge, and for her children’s security, and fought court battles to defend her assets against powerful men. But sustained, in part, by her fierce belief in the Virgin Mary and in Orthodox Christianity, Yetemegnu survived. She even learned to read, in her sixties, and eventually made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem.

Told in Yetemegnu’s enthralling voice and filled with a vivid cast of characters—emperors and empresses, priests and scholars, monks and nuns, archbishops and slaves, Marxist revolutionaries and wartime double agents—The Wife’s Tale introduces a woman both imperious and vulnerable; a mother, widow, and businesswoman whose deep faith and numerous travails never quashed her love of laughter, mischief and dancing; a fighter whose life was shaped by direct contact with the volatile events that transformed her nation.

An intimate memoir that offers a panoramic view of Ethiopia’s recent history, The Wife’s Tale takes us deep into the landscape, rituals, social classes, and culture of this ancient, often mischaracterized, richly complex, and unforgettable land—and into the heart of one indomitable woman.

A hundred years ago, a girl was born in the northern Ethiopian city of Gondar. Before she was ten years old, Yetemegnu was married to a man two decades her senior, an ambitious poet-priest. Over the next century, her world changed beyond recognition. She lived through Fascist invasion and occupation, Allied bombardment, exile from her city, the ascent and fall of Emperor Haile Selassie, revolution, and civil war. She endured all these things alongside parenthood, widowhood, and the death of children.

The Wife’s Tale is an intimate memoir both of a life and of a country. In prose steeped in Yetemegnu’s distinctive voice and point of view, Aida Edemariam retells her grandmother’s stories of a childhood surrounded by proud priests and soldiers, her coming of age, her husband’s imprisonment, and her fight for justice—all played out against the rhythms of the natural world and the rituals of the Orthodox Church. She introduces us to a rich cast of characters—emperors and empresses, scholars and nuns, Marxist revolutionaries and wartime double agents. Through these encounters she takes us deep into the landscape and culture of this multilayered, often mischaracterized country—and into the heart of one courageous woman.

“THE WIFE’S TALE is a remarkable achievement: meticulously researched, finely wrought and deeply felt, it is the story of one woman’s life lived, not so much against the backdrop of history, but in the midst of it.  Edemariam’s grandmother succeeded in building a life out of very little, except her enduring, quiet courage.” - Aminatta Forna, author of THE DEVIL THAT DANCED ON WATER

“In this outstanding and unusual memoir, journalist Edemariam traces a century of Ethiopian history through the life — and distinctive voice — of her nonagenarian grandmother, Yetemegnu...If Edemariam creates a sense of intimacy by imagining her grandmother’s innermost thoughts, she also brings history alive with her gift for vivid description.” - Financial Times

“An intriguing depiction of a remarkable life.” - Library Journal

“[Through] hauntingly beautiful recollections...Edemariam manages to reel us into a particularly gripping personal history, one that reveals the unassailable spirit of one woman.” - Minneapolis Star Tribune

“[Like Chaucer’s Wife of Bath] Aida Edemariam’s sublimely crafted tribute to her grandmother also involves sparring storytellers, religion and the happiness and sovereignty of married women…Intimate history meets the sweep of imperial history when Yetemegnu finds the courage to resist…Yet the role that Yetemegnu finally inhabits is not that of mother but storyteller…Her story is certainly cracked open in the telling, so assured and transcendent, it could win Chaucerian contests.” - Gaiutra Bahadur, New York Times Book Review

“To read Aida Edemariam’s The Wife’s Tale is to savour the life of her grandmother, Yetemegnu. It is a life scented with ginger and garlic, cardamom and basil, which spans emperors, revolutions, invasion, conquest and liberation. Rather than cataloguing Ethiopia’s turbulent modern history, Ms Edemariam stitches together the fragmentary memories and experiences of a single woman” - Economist

“An ambitious, elegantly descriptive… profoundly lyrical narrative…Edemariam’s book offers a glimpse into a singularly fascinating culture and history as it celebrates the courage, resilience, and grace of an extraordinary woman. A richly evocative tale of family and international history.” - Kirkus Reviews

“THE WIFE’S TALE is the extraordinary memoir of a woman who lived through the cataclysmic events that shaped modern Ethiopian history. The narrative, which is lovingly and expertly put together by her granddaughter, is a window into a world that would otherwise be invisible to us.” - Abraham Verghese, author of Cutting for Stone

“A rich portrait of her grandmother’s full life…through lyrical prose interspersed with poetry, prayers, and legends…Readers will appreciate Edemariam’s work—part memoir, part history—for its personal look at an eventful century in Ethiopia.” - Booklist

“Edemariam anchors the book in these mundane rhythms, setting them against a vividly realized landscape…Political turmoil sweeps in like a dream…The book elegantly collapses the distance between the vast and the intimate, showing how history reaches even the most sheltered.”                                                                                                                        - New Yorker

“Beautifully written….Aida Edemariam viewing the country’s past century through her grandmother’s eyes, brings us a more nuanced view, informed by a real knowledge….She respects the past, but she doesn’t sentimentalise it. To read The Wife’s Tale is not just to hear about times past and (for a western reader) far away, but to be transported into them.” - Lucy Hughes-Hallett, New Statesmen

“Extraordinary vivid ‘personal history’… Edemariam not only brings her grandmother to life but also conveys the complexity of a unique, still strongly religious African culture … She weaves in all the necessary historical detail, while expressing in precise and often lyrical language the colours and textures of a beautiful country and the customs and mind-set of an ancient people.” - Andrew Lycett, Literary Review