Gaël Faye

Gaby was a ten year old living in Burundi in 1992. His mother was a refugee from Rwanda, his father French. The neighborhood seemed pretty typical of middle class neighborhoods worldwide with the boys hanging out in a clubhouse made of an abandoned car.

But things never remain the same. Gangs infiltrated the area bringing guns and drugs. Although the neighborhood seemed safe, leaving it behind became problematic. Gaby’s beloved birthday bike was stolen.

And of course, there was increasing talk of unrest in Rwanda; this latter was especially concerning to Gaby’s mother who had relatives, including a sister and her family, still living there.

Gaby and his mother took a short holiday to visit the Rwandan relatives, hoping not only to see them but to persuade them to come to safer Burundi.

While they were there, intense fighting broke out and Gaby was immediately sent home; his mother decided to stay to see if she could arrange safe passage for her sister and her sister’s three children. She disappeared into the genocide and civil war, as did the rest of her family.

Although Gaby and his father remain in their Burundian neighborhood for months, hoping against hope for news of his mother, eventually it became clear that, even with their French passports, it was no longer safe there. They were forced to return to France.

Books played a vital part in Gaby’s imposed confinement as he waited in vain for news of his mother. Books brought not only entertainment but hope and an unexpected friendship with the elderly but odd neighbor who owned them. Books play an important role in the ending.

This is an intense look at another African tribal genocide (this time Hutu and Tsutsi) and the Rwandan civil war. It is brutal – although much of the brutality takes place ‘off stage’ as it were to be heartbreakingly described later.

For me this book was a learn-by-feeling and living experience. I literally cried at the ending.… (more)