The title of this book is tied to a very intriguing premise. Unfortunately, this premise is a minor subplot and not what most of the book is about. Although this book taught me a lot about Italy’s colonial assaults on Ethiopia (I was inspired to do a lot of side-reading on the history), the novel itself dwelled too much on parts of the story that eventually just became repetitive. At 400+ pages, a better editor could have trimmed out some of the repetition and made this a much more powerful read, but unfortunately, that’s not what we get. 3 stars for the historically interesting setting and compelling characters.