The parking lot attendant

The parking lot attendant / Nafkote Tamirat, read by Bhani Turpin, 225 pgs.

On the mysterious island of B____, our protagonist tells the story of how she and her introvert father ended up there.  The story starts in Boston where the Ethiopian community is kind of closed off.  Our unnamed girl falls under the spell of Ayale, an enigmatic parking lot attendant that shows her a lot of attention but also uses her.  He takes advantage of her youth, inexperience and loneliness.  She isn't really sure of the bigger plot but she knows it is nefarious.  As she learns more, she realizes how much danger she is in.  What an interesting story told so well.  As always Bhani Turpin's narrations ADDS to the whole.

The Parking Lot Attendant

The Parking Lot Attendant by Nafkote Tamirat, 225 pages.

Told from the viewpoint of a 16 year-old, unnamed Ethiopian-American girl, living in Boston with her father (well, for most of the story, anyway), This story is strange, compelling and beautifully odd. The narrator has lived with her mother and with her father, but never with both at the same time. As the story opens, she hasn't seen or heard from her mother in the last several years, and her relationship with her father is very strained. One day after school, upon hearing Amharic spoken at a local restaurant, she becomes acquainted with Ayale, the man described in the book's title. Besides the parking lot, Ayale tends to many other hidden enterprises, dispenses favors, delivers odd packages and argues with the narrator's father.
Tamirat writes beautifully and keeps the plot twisting enough so that everyone, reader and character alike of off-balance and a little confused.