Ethiopian-born novelist Maaza Mengiste's 2010 book, Beneath the Lion's Gaze, deals with the lasting impacts of former Ethiopian ruler Haile Selassie on the country, and the 16 difficult years that came between Selassie's death in 1975 and the rebel overthrow of Ethiopia's Marxist government in 1991 - with the novel centered around the effect this turmoil had on the lives of a fictional doctor's family. Championed as, "as one of a new generation of African writers who take on the continent's brutal history of colonization," Mengiste will be in Tacoma this week to discuss her book at the University of Puget Sound.

The free public lecture is sponsored by UPS' Department of English and the Catharine Gould Chism Fund.

[University of Puget Sound - Kilworth Memorial Chapel, 7 p.m., free, 1500 N. Warner, Tacoma, pugetsound.edu]