Born at the End of the World

"Merhazion’s remarkable debut, based on a true story, is a heartbreaking yet ultimately hopeful novel that juxtaposes a moving love story with the horrors of the Red Terror in Ethiopia during the late 1970s.” — Library Journal, starred review

"A determined Ethiopian woman enters the fight for Eritrean independence in Donica Merhazion’s riveting historical novel Born at the End of the World...a thrilling historical novel about a woman’s resilience and resistance." — Dontaná McPherson-Joseph, Foreword Magazine

"Inasmuch as Born at the End of the World is about love, it is also about language, the politics of language and the implications of these politics. Merhazion seeks to understand who we are behind our tongues, what ties bind and divide men on the basis of language." — Azubuike Obi, Afrocritik

“Reading this book left me feeling breathless and heartbroken, but ultimately hopeful. This masterpiece of a novel weaves together themes of resilience, love, language, and the brutal realities of war-torn Ethiopia and Eritrea in the 1970s. This is the best book I’ve read this year. The writing is evocative, the characters are complex, and the historical context is both specific and universal.” — Books, Covers and Tea (5 Star Read)

"The story in Born is that of two people who came together through the fight against what they saw to be cruelty and injustice. Two people who fell in love, and despite huge odds, produced a child who decades later went on to write this book, inspired by their stories. It’s a finely detailed book, spiced with Ethiopian landscape, names, and words like netsela (a veil) and injera (a staple flatbread), which give you the sense of being there. For all the awfulness and terror it describes, it’s a rich book filled with love – not least of the author for her parents." — Nancy Richards, WOMAN ZONE

"Merhazion vividly recounts how Elen and Girmai eventually become embroiled in the political underground struggle. The depictions of violence are precise and told without pathos. [Born at the End of the World] preserves the hopes and experiences of the people from the time before." — Christiane Bock, Literatur Review

"This is Merhazion’s debut novel, and although the story is born from darkness it is not a traumatic read. The author handles the themes of death, poverty, abandonment and family wounds with such care that the reader feels held rather than harrowed." — Somila Swartbooi, African Imaginary 

"The novel is unflinching in its description of the harshness of street life, the sacrifices required to be a revolutionary, and the horrors of interrogation rooms and deadly civil war prisons." — Tema Frank, Historical Novels Review