Summary

In “The Drought That Drowned Us,” a village in the Rift Valley was suffering from drought. A woman named Deborah Azmera and her fellow villagers packed their belongings, including seeds they planned to plant whenever they found a safer place to live, and set off heading north. Nearing starvation, they met a man named Mikael, who told them he would protect them and made each one sign a document. He put them on a boat where they began crossing the ocean. One by one, the villagers died, or were pushed off the boat by the helmsman, until only Deborah was left. When they reached the shore, they saw police and the helmsman pushed Deborah off the boat. She drowned.

In “A Down Home Meal for These Difficult Times,” two Ethiopian immigrants living in New York City...