The Parking Lot Attendant, Nafkote Tamirat
The Parking Lot Attendant, Nafkote Tamirat
2 Rating(s)
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The Parking Lot Attendant
A Novel

Author: Nafkote Tamirat

Narrator: Bahni Turpin

Unabridged: 6 hr 31 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 03/20/2018


Synopsis

"In an instant, narrator Bahni Turpin's rich voice immerses listeners in the unusual circumstances that lead an unnamed teenager and her father to seek refuge in a remote island community." — AudioFile Magazine

A mesmerizing, indelible coming-of-age audiobook about a girl in Boston's tightly-knit Ethiopian community who falls under the spell of a charismatic hustler out to change the world

A haunting story of fatherhood, national identity, and what it means to be an immigrant in America today, Nafkote Tamirat's The Parking Lot Attendant explores how who we love, the choices we make, and the places we’re from combine to make us who we are.

The story begins on an undisclosed island where the unnamed narrator and her father are the two newest and least liked members of a commune that has taken up residence there. Though the commune was built on utopian principles, it quickly becomes clear that life here is not as harmonious as the founders intended. After immersing us in life on the island, our young heroine takes us back to Boston to recount the events that brought her here. Though she and her father belong to a wide Ethiopian network in the city, they mostly keep to themselves, which is how her father prefers it.

This detached existence only makes Ayale’s arrival on the scene more intoxicating. The unofficial king of Boston’s Ethiopian community, Ayale is a born hustler—when he turns his attention to the narrator, she feels seen for the first time. Ostensibly a parking lot attendant, Ayale soon proves to have other projects in the works, which the narrator becomes more and more entangled in to her father’s growing dismay. By the time the scope of Ayale’s schemes—and their repercussions—become apparent, our narrator has unwittingly become complicit in something much bigger and darker than she ever imagined.

About Nafkote Tamirat

Nafkote Tamirat is a native of Boston. She holds an MFA from Columbia University. Her short stories have appeared in Birkensnake, The Anemone Sidecar, and Best Paris Stories. The Parking Lot Attendant is her first novel.


Reviews

Goodreads review by emma on March 06, 2022

I feel like I could make sense of this if I wanted to. I just don't want to. The thing about a book being incomprehensible is that I have to enjoy reading it enough to want to spend the extra time with it to figure it out. And this was not pleasurable to read. So here we are. Bottom line: Not every chal......more

Goodreads review by Meike on January 30, 2019

Let's just put it out there: The ambiguity of this book does not feel like a window to different meanings that might enrich the text and get the reader thinking, it rather feels like a sloppy attempt to give the story an experimental feel. The unnamed teenage narrator is the daughter of Ethiopian im......more

Goodreads review by Janelle Janson on January 25, 2019

Thank you so much to Henry Holt for providing my free copy of THE PARKING LOT ATTENDANT by Nafkote Tamirat- all opinions are my own. The book opens with an unnamed narrator, a teenage girl from Boston, and her Ethiopian immigrant father, living on an undisclosed island. The story then switches back t......more


Quotes

"[Bahni] Turpin's performance is dynamic as she confidently takes on Ethiopian accents for Ayale and his followers, along with a tone that is both persuasive and intimidating. Turpin's consistent performance never betrays the sometimes unreliable first-person narrator or the darkness encroaching on this teenager's insulated life." -AudioFile


Awards

  • New York Times Book Review Notable Books of the Year