Born in 1958, the author Adam Reta is well known in Ethiopia for his creative storytelling and dedication to broadening the understanding of narrative and aesthetic appreciation across the country. His research on Amharic narration, Ethiopia’s official language, led to the development of innovative narratological principles he terms hitsinawinet. This framework builds on the idea of hitsen—unavoidable gaps in a text—by establishing a method for filling these gaps through linking events told from different perspectives within a story. The four main characteristics of hitsinawinet’s rhizomatic framework are change, connectedness, interconnectedness, and the filling of gaps in storylines.

Adam explains the concept of hitsinawinet by comparing it to the national food. He mainly uses injera, Ethiopia’s fermented flatbread, as his key metaphor. Although injera looks flat, it is full of interconnected, three-dimensional holes. Instead of a traditional linear story, Adam opts for a similarly web-like structure that powerfully reflects Ethiopia’s intricate, fragmented history through its interconnected elements.

This excerpt from “Broth” (መረቅ Mereq) illustrates fragmented narration that shifts across different locations and times as Enanu reminisces in a stream-of-consciousness style. Additionally, the story where Enanu talks about her friend Seble (narrator Alazar’s grandmother) functions as a palimpsest, with a similar plot reference to the classic Amharic novel ‘ፍቅር እስከ መቃብር’—Love until the Grave by Haddis Alemayehu. While I was able to replicate the stream-of-consciousness style in translation by leaving some sentences unfinished, using ellipses instead, and shifting topics without regular linking phrases, I couldn’t clearly indicate the palimpsest connection.

In this novel, Reta intentionally uses the term mereq instead of wot, a spicy vegetable or meat stew eaten with injera. Mereq refers to a type of wot with more gravy, resembling a broth more than a traditional stew. Here, mereq acts as a semiotic symbol representing the fluidity of hitsenawinet, allowing the narration to move in various directions. Just as mereq spreads when poured over injera and fills the holes, hitsenawinet narration can also fill gaps in a story by branching out to explore new perspectives. To clarify this idea further, certain words and, in some cases, syllables in the book are highlighted in grey. When combined, these words form a symbolic ‘broth’ that fills narrative gaps by offering a new perspective, ultimately becoming the last chapter. In translation, it is challenging to recreate such semiotic narratology by highlighting selected words, as some words lack English equivalents and must be contextualised.

To navigate the complexity of translating Adam’s hitsenawinet narration, I used an original translation framework that I developed during my PhD research. Drawing on the rich principles of Ethiopian indigenous hermeneutic traditions, such as qine (Ethiopian oral poetry and rhetoric) and andemta (iterative interpretation), this framework encourages creativity and adaptability, enabling me to present the story in English with greater clarity and authenticity. During this process, I used qisala, an insightful analytical reading technique that encourages critical interpretation. It helped me uncover the opacity of Amharic figures of speech, such as metaphor, metonymy, irony and double entendre. I also used andemta. The iterative interpretation process helped me examine alternative meanings and expressions until I arrived at a closer, more authentic rendering of the original voice.

Bethlehem Attfield, February 2026, Abuja