The Shadow King- Maaza Mengiste

 

Why do you think Hirut returns forty years later to give Ettore the Letters? 

            The book begins in the year 1974, 40 years after the war has ended. Hirut, a former soldier, waits at the Addis Ababa train station. She was seated on the ground in the corner of train station, holding the metal box on her lap. She was waiting for Ettore Navarra to return this metal box. Ettore Navarra, a Jewish- Italian army Photographer serving with brutal Italian warrior Colonel Fucelli. He is forced to document its horrific atrocities.

     "She tucks the letter inside her dress. she feels the corner of the envelope. she is supposed to give him everything, but she knows the value of that letter and though she may not know what the words say," Inside the metal box, there are two bundles of picture, each tied with the same delicate blue string. Hirut unties it and the two photographs slide out, sticking together from age. This box is filled with the photographs of Ethiopians that Ettore was hired to take, as well as newspaper clippings and his personal letters has come in to the possession of Hirut. She wanted to rid herself of every memory of him and those years.