From the author of the gripping yet heartbreaking Code Name Verity and Rose Under Fire, comes an original coming-of-age novel set during the Italian occupation of Ethiopia from 1927 to 1935.
Emilia and Teo have both grown up away from their fathers, raised by their daring stunt-pilot mothers who are known as Black Dove and White Raven. They live happy lives, making up inventive stories about two characters, also called Black Dove and White Raven, and watching their mothers' performances, until one day a bird strike brings down their plane, killing Teo's mother. Searching for a way to be free from racism and prejudice, Em's mother decides to take them to Ethiopia, fulfilling her best friend's dream of taking Teo back to where his father was from. But trouble seems to be following them, and soon they find themselves caught between two sides of a brutal war.
Like Elizabeth Wein's other novels, this book is extraordinarily compelling. Em and Teo's alternating perspectives are an effective way of telling the story and there are a few unexpected plot twists. From the first page, I felt like I was inside the story; I could almost imagine I was flying a plane into the empty Ethiopian sky, or listening to the yipping of hyenas in the distance.
Readers will also gain an insight into Ethiopia's unique culture. I have learned to expect amazingly detailed research from Elizabeth Wein, having read her other books, but this one was particularly interesting, with depictions of ancient Ethiopian church services and rituals, as well as everyday culture and information about the geography and seasons of Ethiopia.
It doesn't feel like you're reading a history textbook though, I was interested in every last detail and all the information is relevant to the plot.
I loved the flying sequences in this novel and it was easy to imagine gliding and swooping through the air, seeing whole cities below the plane. It showed how flying could be so many things for different people: exhilarating, peaceful or terrifying. I was very interested to hear about Bessie Coleman, the first African-American to gain an international pilot's licence, and other famous pilots that Wein mentions.
Although I enjoyed the alternating perspectives and I understand that they were important to the plot, I did have trouble distinguishing between Em and Teo's perspectives at the start. This completely changes after about five or six chapters when they start to develop their own voices, and I can definitely overlook this if I think about the whole plot.
The characters in this book are beautiful: Em and Teo's fiercely protective aviatrix mothers; Horatio Augustus, the flamboyant stunt pilot who accidentally crashes the Emperor's plane during a coronation rehearsal; Sinidu, the brave Ethiopian nurse who cares for the wounded with her baby strapped to her back; Habte Sadek, the old priest who helped rescue the church's treasures from British looters in his younger days, and of course our two protagonists: impulsive Em, and Teo, who wishes he could make himself invisible.
I wasn't sure about the uncertain ending of this book at first, but it reflects real life and I was glad it wasn't a fairytale ending, even if I am still wondering what happened to the characters. I felt like it resolved the plot enough to bring the novel to a close, without giving all of the characters a satisfying ending. As the author writes in the note at the end, 'Ethiopia's story has no real ending.'
• Buy this book at the Guardian Bookshop.
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