Trying Times

'Trying Times' is a story based on the fortunes of two young women Meseret and Mahlet. It is based on their experience of love and war at a young age. The writer through the two girls introduces us to the Second Ethio-Italian War and the first victory of the Allies (USA, Britain, France and USSR) in Second World War in East Africa. James Frood, a history teacher in King's College, Auckland, New Zealand wrote, "Wilbur Smith's character in his novel, Cry Wolf, about the invasion of Abyssinian war, expresses a 'romantic' and simplified view of the conflict. 'Mussolini has all the guns, aircraft and armour he needs. The jolly old Ethiop has a few ancient rifles and a lot of two handed swords...It should be a close match.'' In contrast Tilahun Tassew's novel, Trying Times, provides a unique insight into the Italian invasion of Abyssinia in 1935. The novel describes sustained Abyssinian resistance to that invasion which continued until 1940 when the country was liberated by Allied forces.'' "Trying Times'' forwards an Ethiopian perspective of the international and national conditions that led to the Second World War. When Ethiopia declared war on the Axis Powers in 1942, President Roosevelt cabled to Emperor Haile Selassie as follows: "By virtue of this historical declaration the first nation to be freed from the yoke of Axis oppression has joined its forces with those of the United Nations in this great struggle to preserve the freedom of mankind."The relevance of the book for students is emphasized by James Frood as follows: "Students studying the Origins of World War II could use to advantage some of the ideas in the novel to illustrate the consequences of this event. The international consequences are relatively straightforward to assess but it would be an interesting added dimension to detail the consequences within Abyssinia (Ethiopia). You may, like me, have thought that resistance virtually ceased after Italian forces conquered Addis Ababa. Trying Times describes the prolonged battles that Abyssinian people conducted against Italian occupation right up to liberation in 1940. The book shows the evils of chemical war that has been unleashed in vast scale for the first time in history."Trying Times'' was first published by Shama Books in 2011. The 2013 e-book publication on Amazon will avail the book for international readers.