At the beginning of the rainy season, a man arrives in Addis Ababa under the author's name, pays for his three-month visa in cash, and checks into the oldest hotel on the African continent. What he is looking for there and who he really is changes with every encounter. Sometimes he follows the prophecy of his Mayan horoscope, sometimes he wants to be the editor of a magazine about Karl-Heinz Böhm's charitable life's work, sometimes he is a seeker, sometimes he is tormented by lovesickness. But what he finds in the Ethiopian capital proves to be no less inconsistent and contradictory – a city he knows little about, but where, between corrugated iron walls and colonial facades, between the death of the prime minister and heaven-ordained house arrest, a fascinating and irritating umbrella of impressions quickly unfolds, its shadow reaching back into the country's gruesome past.
With subtle irony and a classical tone, Joachim Bessing's new novel draws on myths, coincidences, and encounters to depict a world overshadowed by colonial atrocities. A world in which – as at the Ethiopian weekly market – no clear answers can be found, but in which a hidden voice, made of wax and gold, communicates itself in all things.
Novel
Joachim Bessing, born in 1971, became known for his columns, reports, and numerous books. He lives in Berlin as an author and translator. Previously published by Matthes & Seitz Berlin: Hamburg. Sex City (2021).
