Summary
The book is a collection of short stories. The first story, "The Suitcase," describes a young woman preparing to return home to America. Her relatives pack her luggage with things they would like her to take across the ocean for them. At the end of the story they narrowly manage to fit everything into her two suitcases.
In "The Wall," a young boy befriends an elderly German man who helps him work on his English. They become close and the professor gives him the gift of a notebook. Over the years, they lose touch. Much later, the boy, now an adult, tries to see if the man still lives in the same place, as he recalls their time together. In "The Street Sweep," a man named Getu sneaks into a high-society party and tries to get a job from a wealthy man who offered to help him. He talks to the man and is disappointed to learn he had no real intention of giving him actual work.
"Mekonnen aka Mack aka Huey Freakin' Newton" is about a young man, Mekonnen, who joins a dance group, called the African American All Stars, at his school. He learns more about racism and the history of Black culture in America. At the same time, he becomes friends with a boy named Kareen, who is the de facto leader of the group. Their relationship becomes somewhat strained over time, but along the way Mekonnen develops a better understanding of what it means to be Black in America.
In "The Thief's Tale," a man avoids being robbed by a thief by being unable to speak English. In "Kind Stranger," the narrator is cornered by a stranger, Gedeyon, who tells him the story of his political imprisonment during Ethiopia's "Derg." He says that at one time he had a crush on a wealthy young woman named Marta. He asks her out and she rejects him, mocking his shoes. Later, he says that he was detained by the government and gave up her name while he was being tortured. They run into each other years later and things take a tragic turn.
The story "Medallion" details the life of an idealistic young man named Yohannes who comes to America to study engineering. He takes a cab ride with a man named Bobby who convinces him to start driving his cab, alternating in on the shifts that Bobby can't take. Bobby insinuates himself further into Yohannes's life and Yohannes begins to drop his classes to take on more work. Bobby claims to be setting aside money for Yohannes' taxi medallion but then disappears suddenly.
"Sinkholes" describes a young boy's encounter with a racial slur in a classroom, as he refuses to write an offensive word on a chalkboard. In "The Case of the Missing Prime Minister," the narrator writes a summary, with redactions, of the disappearance of a famously brutal political leader. "The Life and Times of the Little Manuscript & Anonymous" is about a radical political manuscript that inspires a journalist to write what he feels.
"The Elders" depicts the planning of a funeral for an engineer named Paulos. Paulos is killed in a hate crime in Texas and his church congregation tries to decide whether or not Paulos should be buried in Texas or in Ethiopia. They argue that if they send him back to Ethiopia, it's a victory for the racists who killed him. At the same time, others say that to bury him in the country where he was murdered feels equally wrong. "The Drought Drowned Us" is about the death of a woman named Deborah during a period of intense drought.
The title story, "A Down Home Meal for These Difficult Times," follows two women, Jazarah and Yeshi, as they make recipes from an American cookbook. They take solace in the meals they bake as they weather U.S. historical events like September 11th and the 2008 economic crisis. They eventually open their own restaurant where they make American comfort food for their clientele, seeking to give the same culinary solace they found in those trying years.
The story "Preludes" follows the lives of various Ethiopian immigrants in a small community in Washington State. It focuses on the life of a woman named Marla who tries to advise other immigrants on the best way to live in a foreign country. The final story, "Swearing In, January 20, 2009," is about the inauguration of Barack Obama. The narrator of the story travels to Washington D.C. and describes his overwhelming hope and joy in the festive atmosphere of that day.
