A Down Home Meal for These Difficult Times

These stories capture lives caught between cultures and continents, past and present, truth and lies. As its displaced characters seek belonging, this collection explores the challenges of connection with empathy and nuance. A thrilling debut -- BRIT BENNETT
Wonderful, wise stories [capturing] the experience of dislocation and loneliness * * Daily Mail * *
Shines with potent, affecting moments * * Independent * *
A Down Home Meal for These Difficult Times held me spellbound, riveted to the compelling characters that walk through these pages, all of them guided by Meron's revelatory and generous examinations of belonging and displacement -- MAAZA MENGISTE
Brims with lives on the margins, collisions that do not fully happen, redemptions thwarted at the last minute . . . This style, which time and time again comes off the page as truly effortless, is what makes Hadero a new master of the form, and this collection a masterful one -- CHIGOZIE OBIOMA
A Down Home Meal For These Difficult Times is like a box of chocolates, with each story a meditation on identity, belonging, home and community. An Ethiopian-American writer with a global perspective, Hadero's characters find themselves in-between, pulled by traditions while working to create new ties in adopted homelands. Her stories are mirrors that reflect back on her readers as they seek to understand and adapt to new paradigms, at work and in the world. Short and poignant, Hadero's stories will linger-making even the briefest moment to read a powerful and sustaining experience * * Forbes * *
Debut books don't get much stronger than this. Meron Hadero's remarkable stories explore a diverse cast of people doing their best to find acceptance or at least stability . . . Hadero is deeply perceptive; her dialogue always rings true, and the regard she has for her characters is apparent. This isn't just an excellent first book, it's an excellent book, period * * Books We Love, NPR * *
Heartwarming, thought-provoking . . . Hadero tactfully shines a light on the hardships that many migrants face, those of citizenship, displacement, financial instability. But what stuck with me was the running thread of hope throughout * * gal-dem * *
Memorable and engaging * * Times Literary Supplement * *
Meron Hadero's dazzling short stories span the diaspora, poignantly portraying characters in search of opportunity and belonging. Rich with insight, compassion and wit . . . an unforgettable debut -- VANESSA HUA