I Hope You Find What You’re Looking For

The nuanced debut from Mezghebe finds an Eritrean American teen seeking answers about her late father’s life as a revolutionary martyr. In 1991, Lydia Negash, 13, lives with her steely mother, Elsa Haddish, in Alexandria, Va. Eritrea has just gained independence from Ethiopia after a long war, and all Lydia knows about her father, Efrem, is that he died fighting in the war in 1978, before she was born. Elsa, once a fierce idealist who fought alongside Efrem, emigrated to the U.S. with Lydia when she was an infant. Now, Elsa sells hot dogs on the National Mall, and tries to protect Lydia from details of her and Efrem’s violent past. With the arrival of Elsa’s free-spirited 19-year-old cousin Berekhet from Addis Ababa, Lydia longs to learn more about her roots. She seeks answers from Berekhet and her surrogate aunt, Zewdi Naizghi, a neighbor and distant cousin who sells home-cooked Eritrean food to fellow immigrants. The knotty truth about Efrem comes out later in flashbacks from Elsa’s perspective. Along the way, Mezghebe crafts a kaleidoscopic portrait of the ways her characters are torn between duty and desire for independence, as Berekhet resists his family’s expectations that be become a doctor and Zewdi considers leaving their tight-knit community for a suitor in California. Readers will find much to admire. Agent: Ayesha Pande, Ayesha Pande Literary. (Feb.)