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Someone Like Us: A novel

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Description

A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK • The son of Ethiopian immigrants seeks to understand a hidden family history and uncovers a past colored by unexpected loss, addiction, and the enduring emotional pull toward home. After abandoning his once-promising career as a journalist in search of a new life in Paris, Mamush meets Hannah—a photographer whose way of seeing the world shows him the possibility of finding not only love but family. Now, five years later, with his marriage to Hannah on the verge of collapse, he returns to the close-knit immigrant Ethiopian community of Washington, DC, that defined his childhood. At its center is Mamush’s stoic, implacable mother, and Samuel, the larger- than-life father figure whose ceaseless charm and humor have always served as a cover for a harder, more troubling truth. But on the same day that Mamush arrives home in Washington, Samuel is found dead in his garage. With Hannah and their two-year-old son back in Paris, Mamush sets out on an unexpected journey across America in search of answers to questions he'd been told never to ask. As he does so, he begins to understand that perhaps the only chance he has of saving his family and making it back home is to confront not only the unresolved mystery around Samuel’s life and death, but his own troubled memories, and the years spent masking them. Breathtaking, commanding, unforgettable work from one of America’s most prodigiously gifted novelists. Read more

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Knopf


Publication date ‏ : ‎ July 30, 2024


Language ‏ : ‎ English


Print length ‏ : ‎ 272 pages


ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0385350007


ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 06


Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.31 pounds


Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.33 x 1.03 x 9.52 inches


Best Sellers Rank: #444,738 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #1,044 in Psychological Fiction (Books) #2,238 in Black & African American Literature (Books) #4,165 in Literary Fiction (Books)


#1,044 in Psychological Fiction (Books):


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Top Amazon Reviews

    • they can't go home again
Format: Kindle
the young man was stoic in personality from a tender age. a first generation us citizen of ethiopian parents, a paranoid mother and an absent mysterious father who may be the family friend from ethiopia, samuel, the man who comes and goes out of the lives of mamush and his mother. flashbacks within flashbacks narrated by mamush in a prosaic prose style, a journalist with aspirations of writing a serious book about ethiopians migrant to the united states. ethiopians in the united states, one gets the impression, are the only africans from the continent who retain a sense of their homeland as one end of a nexus of an identity of an ethiopian consciousness in a new land with, on the other end, a willful sense of not belonging–though an ethiopian may be physically in the united states, they are actually in ethiopia. mamush, inheritor of an ethiopian consciousness, has no ethiopia where he can return. the feeling of having to get back to an ethiopia that no longer exists as the ethiopia left behind, projected by his mother and samuel, manifest as his writing projects about migrants. samuel is in constant motion, as a taxi driver, his dream to have his own taxi company to transport ethiopians throughout the united states. mamush escaped. he moved to france, married a french woman and, with her, had a son. his reluctant visit back to the states to his fragmented memories and the lies and silences of those who raised him, are pieces of a puzzled life. samuel, a latter day strether from henry james’ The Ambassadors, tells the young man that ethiopians laugh, failing to convey his wisdom to the young man in the saddest of novels. my thank you to netgalley and knopf publisher for an advanced reader’s copy. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on July 30, 2024 by Case Quarter
    • this is the 3rd book I have read by this author. wonderful
Format: Kindle
I have not read any books about the immigrant experience that have affected me more than the books by this author. The sense of loss, the acknowledgement that all immigrants do not come from a particular nation seeking only opportunities but come because the country they live in no longer exists as they knew it is unique. This book is different from the others because of the magical realism. It is similar in that there is no pat happy ending. I can’t wait for the next one.Bravo. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on September 14, 2024 by Diana M. Frank
    • American man searches for answers
Format: Kindle
While this was well written, it just meandered for me. It is the story of Mamush, the American son of an Ethiopian immigrant. It begins with Samuel's death, the man who was a father figure to him. Mamush was a journalist, married to Hannah, living in Paris with her and their 2 year old son. However, their marriage is on the rocks, and Mamush is searching for answers. He travels across America in his search, and Samuel, while alive, tries to give Mamush some life lessons. It is the story of a man searching for meaning in his heritage, his life, his love. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on April 27, 2025 by Rose M.
    • A beautiful and enlightening book
Format: Hardcover
In SOMEONE LIKE US, former journalist and son of Ethiopian immigrants - Mamush - returns from France to visit his mother in Washington DC, only to find out about the death of Samuel, who was like a father to him. One follows the journey as Mamush grapples with a past he was never told about while confronting the unresolved mystery of Samuel's life and death. Mengestu touches on immigrant experiences, racism and loneliness, inviting one to delve into the consciousness of unreliable narrators. The author examines the way faith and culture are impacted for those trying to make a life and as things can be easily taken away, the story highlights the importance of telling certain stories. What's a type of story that one tells oneself to survive? When the present blends with the past and real and unreal interweave, the story feels like a fever dream, vague and atmospheric. This is the kind of story that one finds meaning in everything, in which each dialogue seems loaded in complexity and susceptible to personal interpretations. What keeps me from fully embracing the story is that the timeline jumps are challenging to follow and Hannah's POV (Mamush's wife) feels beyond elusive. SOMEONE LIKE US is an ode to home, a character-driven story about belonging and the transient state of things. I found this book enlightening and quietly emotional. If you're looking for a straightforward plot, this book might not be for you. I am looking forward to reading Mengestu's other titles. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on August 6, 2024 by Elena L.
    • Another excellent novel
Format: Hardcover
I’ve read all of Mengestu’s books. They keep getting better.
Reviewed in the United States on September 21, 2024 by Daniel Kenneth Brendtro
    • Haunting and beautifully written
Format: Kindle
Someone Like Us by Dinaw Mengestu is a haunting, beautifully written book about a young father who is an Ethiopian-American immigrant to Paris returning home to Washington, DC, to visit his mother and father figure / family friend Samuel. The author gives a poignant description of the divide between first- and second-generation immigrants, and the difficulty Samuel faced in just getting to the point where he could try to use his gifts in America. He also describes the pain of the idea of going back to Addis and seeing what he had lost. Great character development and intriguing twist at the end. I have been a fan of Mengestu’s earlier work, and this is another engaging and moving novel that will stay with me. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on July 30, 2024 by Elizabeth N
    • Forgotten Priorities
Format: Kindle
Like the protagonist in The Sun Also Rises, our narrator learns that our eternal quest for a better life often leads us back to where we started. This painful, yet hopeful, tale about an Ethiopian immigrant’s experience in America is transporting and raw, but ultimately ambiguous in its conclusion.
Reviewed in the United States on August 10, 2025 by Patricia

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