A Down Home Meal for These Difficult Times: Stories

Winner of the 2020 Restless Books Prize for New Immigrant Writing, Ethiopian-American writer Meron Hadero's gorgeously wrought debut collection of stories, Preludes, offers us sharp and humane portraits of those whose lives have been marked by border crossings.

Set across the U.S. and abroad, Meron Hadero's short story collection Preludes features characters who are immigrants, refugees, and those facing displacement. Appearing in Best American Short Stories, "The Suitcase" is about a young woman who visits her country of origin for the first time and finds that an ordinary object opens up an unexpected, complex bridge between worlds. Shortlisted for the Caine Prize, "The Wall" takes place in Iowa and portrays the intergenerational friendship between two characters who've been refugees with connections to Germany ahead of the fall of the Berlin Wall. A Best American Short Stories notable, "Mekonnen aka Mack aka Huey Freakin' Newton" is a coming-of-age narrative about an Ethiopian immigrant in Brooklyn encountering nuances of race and identity in his new country, while "A Down Home Meal for These Difficult Times" tells the story of two refugee women bonding as they explore American cuisine as well as the unfamiliar expectations of their lives in New York. "The Life and Times of the Little Manuscript & Anonymous" examines the price and pull of freedom. Along with these, the other stories in the collection follow characters navigating contexts that challenge their understanding and assertion of self as they seek new ways to belong.