The Parking Lot Attendant by Nafkote Tamirat

If it were not for Book Riot’s All the Books Podcast, this book would not have been on my radar. One of the hosts, Liberty, said this is a book she has read 10 times so far this year. I usually trust her picks, so I grabbed it the first chance I could.

What a strange little book!

I have been sitting at the keyboard trying to think of how to describe this book- do I focus on plot? On characters? On overall theme? And still am unsure where to begin with this as one of my goals is to convince you this is a good book, but there is nothing within any of the things mentioned above which will do that, even though it is a good book.

The book largely centers on an Ethiopian girl, her father, and a mysterious hustler named Ayale, who runs the local parking lot, which seems to have more cars in it than it can hold. Our protagonist is drawn to Ayale and her father is not happy about it.

Ayale is very mysterious and there is a wonderful chapter where our protagonist lists all the things she knows and doesn’t know about him. He is opinionated, seems to sleep with tons of women, and has lots of friends who come and go often.

As the relationship grows, our protagonist, become a courier for Ayale delivering mysterious packages for not quite small amount of money. While she likes Ayale, her trust begins to wane as she realizes she does not know what is in these packages and Ethiopians in Boston keep getting murdered around the neighborhood. The question is what exactly is our protagonist doing for Ayale?

As I read the book, I too kept being drawn to Ayale. Tamirat has written a truly remarkable character who lures the reader in with his opinions, his strange lifestyle choices, and his job. It is strange, but for me, the plot became secondary as I wanted to spend more time with Ayale.

The one distracting part of the book is Tamirat will go into a conversation with two people by having a quick back and forth and doesn’t let the reader know which person is speaking. If you lose count, you will forget exactly who is speaking and often times I had to go back to re-read the conversation. Part of it is the writing is so good and the conversation draws one in.

Definitely read this one with an open mind and knowing the book may not be for you. I wound up loving it though, largely due to Ayale.