Eyasped Tesfaye

#Book_Review: Between Euphoria and Ruin: Reflections on Befeqadu Hailu’s Lost in Transition addisstandard.com/?p=53686 In this book review, Eyasped Tesfaye offers a reflection on Befeqadu Hailu's Lost in Transition, a work notable as one of the few attempting to provide a comprehensive, chronological account of the past decade's volatile #Ethiopian politics, a period that he characterizes compellingly: "There are decades where nothing happens, and there are weeks where decades happen." The reviewer acknowledges the considerable difficulty of crafting a balanced retrospective in a deeply polarized environment but commends Befeqadu’s overall success, noting that his disagreements with the author’s interpretations amount to “genuine differences of perspective rather than partisan distortion.” According to Eyasped, the book offers rich historical context on state formation, examines ethno-federalism and the role of historical memory, and includes a dedicated section on the corrosive impact of disinformation on public discourse during political transitions, arguing that such periods are “uniquely vulnerable” to falsehoods. Above all, the reviewer sees the book as indispensable—not for offering easy answers, but for compelling readers to “force a pause” and, in doing so, “reassess their positions” on the defining crises of the last ten years. As Eyasped puts it, Lost in Transition does more than analyze—it “invites the reader to think, to reassess, and to imagine the institutional and civic work required to prevent future failures of transition.”