The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears By Dinaw Mengestu

Barely suppressed despair and black wit infuse this beautifully observed debut from Mengestu, an Ethiopian emigre. Set over eight months in a gentrifying Washington neighborhood in the 1970s, it captures an uptick in Ethiopian grocery store owner Sepha Stephanos' long-deferred hopes, as Judith, a white academic, fixes up the four-story house next to his apartment building, treats him to dinner and lets him steal a kiss. Just as unexpected is Sepha's friendship with Judith's biracial 11-year-old daughter, Naomi (one of the book's most vivid characters), over a copy of The Brothers Karamazov. Sepha's two friends, Joseph from Congo and Kenneth from Kenya, joke with Sepha about African dictators and gently mock his romantic aspirations, while the neighborhood's loaded racial politics hang over Sepha and Judith's burgeoning relationship like a sword of Damocles.