In Dante Alighieri’s epic poem The Divine Comedy, the poet emerges from Hell with his guide, Virgil, and experiences something akin to a sailor seeing land for the first time in months.

We climbed up, he first and I second, so far that through a round opening I saw some of the beautiful things that Heaven bears; and thence we issued forth to see again the stars.

It’s one of the most powerful moments in the poem — and probably one of the most accurate descriptions of the emotions attached to escaping such a bleak environment and rediscovering the meaning of beauty.

In New York-based author Dinaw Mengestu’s debut novel, which takes its name from that line in “Inferno,” those emotions are familiar to the protagonist, a poor shopkeeper named Sepha Stephanos. Born in Ethiopia, Stephanos flees to the U.S. after his wealthy father is beaten and arrested by soldiers during the Ethiopian Revolution. Leaving behind his mother and brother, he moves to Washington D.C., only to discover that America is not that light at the end of the tunnel, but maybe just a phosphorus glow.

Using a government loan, Stephanos opens a grocery store in pre-gentrified Logan’s Circle and spends his days playing games of “name that dictator” with two fellow African immigrants, Kenneth from Kenya and Joseph from the Congo. In these three characters, we see dreams deferred. Joseph doesn’t see himself moving past his job as a waiter at a high-end restaurant. Kenneth, an engineer, has found limited success, but has a hard time gaining the respect he deserves. And Stephanos’ plan to eventually turn his small shop into a full-fledged restaurant goes only as far as purchasing a new deli counter, which ends up gathering dust.