In this week's Endnotes, we take a look at Someone Like Us (July, Knopf) by Dinaw Mengestu. In a starred review, PW called the novel "beautiful," adding that "Mengestu’s tremendous talents are on full display."
Here's how the book came together.
Dinaw Mengestu, Author
“I wanted to not only capture the rich and complicated
life of one person but also say something about the long history of migration in American cities across generations. As the book evolved, I found myself wrestling with how these stories are told and ultimately read, not only in America but also Europe, and in Paris in particular. I think a lot about the ethics of narration, about my position as a writer to the stories and lives that I engage with.”
Linda Huang, Art Director, Pantheon Books
“I was initially playing around with the image of a business card for a taxi company featuring Amharic script, as well as various other car-related photography. I felt those directions were a bit too cold, so at the 11th hour—the morning of the cover meeting—I quickly sketched up another direction featuring an illustration of a car with the type crisscrossing along a wavy route.”
PJ Mark, Literary Agent, Janklow & Nesbit
“I have been working with Dinaw since 2005 and his first novel, The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears. Someone Like Us was part of a two-book deal with Jordan Pavlin that started with the book All Our Names.”
Jordan Pavlin, Senior VP and Editor-in-Chief, Knopf
“Working with Dinaw on this book was a complete joy from start to finish. It landed on my desk in glorious form—its architecture so finely conceived, every sentence a marvel of restraint, with tightly contained emotional intensity simmering beneath the surface. I have to add that Dinaw also happens to be one of the truly great human beings on the planet, as incandescent in life as he is on the page.”
