From Publishers Weekly
Since 1994, several books of nonfiction, and now Pierce's debut novel, have tried to comprehend how an estimated one million Tutsi men, women and children came to be slaughtered by their Hutu neighbors in a chilling episode of modern genocide. Pierce, who has worked and traveled in Africa, divides his unbiased novel into the short internal narratives of 10 different figures from all sides of the conflictATutsis and Hutus, murderers and victims, refugees and good SamaritansAwhose lives are threaded together by chance and violence. Characters include Silas Bagambiki, a local Hutu petty official who sees slaughter as a way to consolidate power; Augustin Makizimana, a foolish young Hutu who is drawn quickly and unthinkingly into committing atrocities; and Innocent Karangwa, a Tutsi boy who escapes Bagambiki's militia only to become an opportunistic war urchin in Rwanda's capital of Kigali. In the midst of this graphically violent history, a few characters are able to preserve their moral centers, among them Hutu nurse Agn?s Mujawanaliya and the Tutsi Uganda-born guerrilla Capt. Stephen Mazimpaka, who, by falling in love with each other at the book's end, serve as an example of Rwanda's best hopes. Despite Pierce's painstaking depiction of small-scale politics and his plain-spoken and informative incorporation of local color, the flatness of his prose and the identical, unnuanced voices of the characters make it difficult for this well-intentioned novel to match up to such works of nonfiction as Philip Gourevitch's We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families. (Aug.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
This heart-wrenching and exceptional first collection of linked stories powerfully captures the horror of the 1994 Rwandan genocide and gives an all-too-human face to the headlines. Ten charactersAmen, women, and children, Hutus and Tutsis, victims and murderersAtell their individual stories. From the first massacres and flight to refugee camps to a tentative peace and the struggle to return home, each witnesses the madness, sorrow, and faint hope of a nation drowning in centuries-old hate. Pierce's graphic accounts of atrocities are harrowing, as are his descriptions of life in camps filled with disease and starvation. He gives each character, even the despicable ones, a depth and uniqueness that balance the terror, creating a universal story of tragedy and survival. While recent events will spark interest, the strong story, involving characters, and good writing make this a novel that will last. Recommended for all libraries.AEllen Flexman, Indianapolis-Marion Cty. P.L.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
