Sense of Place Stars: Rwanda

Fiction and Nonfiction Titles

Annotations are from Advance, the Ingram Book Magazine, unless noted.

Fiction

  • Sunday at the Pool in Kigali
    Author: Courtemanche, Gil
    Publisher: Knopf $ 23 ISBN: 1400041074 Date: 2003
    starKirkusstarLJ
    This landmark novel--penned by a journalist who spent several years in Africa--confronts the nightmare that ravaged Rwanda in April 1994, when the Hutu-led government orchestrated genocide against the Tutsi people.
    Updated 9.25.03
  • Peacemaker
    Author: Kent, Gordan
    Publisher: Putnam $ 25.95 ISBN: 0399146636 Date: 2001
    starPWstarKirkus
    Alan Craik, an intelligence officer and a pilot, returns from sea duty and lands behind a desk at the Pentagon. When his best friend Harry O'Neill, a new CIA agent, is kidnapped, he presses his superiors to let him run a rescue mission. Soon Alan joins a U.S. fleet off the African coast and flies into war-torn Rwanda in search of the missing Harry.
    Updated 2/21/01

Nonfiction

  • Shake Hands with the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda
    Author: Dallair, Romeo and Brent Beardsley
    Publisher: Carroll & Graf $ 16.95 (paper) ISBN: 0786715103 Date: 2005
    starBooklist
    Canadian Gen. Romaeo Dallaire, force commander of the UN Assistance Mission for Rwanda, recreates the history of the most barbarous and chaotic civil war and genocide--which transformed him from confident Cold Warrior to devastated UN commander, and finally to retired general struggling painfully, and publicly, to overcome posttraumatic stress disorder.
    Updated 1.18.05
  • Machete Season: The Killers in Rwanda Speak
    Author: Hatzfeld, Jean
    Publisher: FSG $ 24 ISBN: 0374280827 Date: 2005
    starKirkus
    A veteran foreign correspondent reports on the results of his interviews with nine Hutus who helped to kill 50,000 out of their 59,000 Tutsi neighbors. This testimony of the Rwanda horror reconsiders the foundation of human morality and ethics.
    Updated 3.25.05
  • Land of a Thousand Hills: My Life in Rwanda
    by Halsey, Ann Howard, with Carr, Rosamond Halsey
    Publisher: Viking Books ISBN: 0-670-88780-3 $ 23.95
    starBooklist
    "Whether chugging up the Congo on a paddle-wheel steamboat, rubbing elbows with pygmy chiefs (or wealthy colonial neighbors), being pursued through the dark by a stalking leopard, or visiting friend Dian Fossey and her mountain gorillas at Karioske, Carr found herself living a life of cinematic proportions. In the process, she witnessed a half century of the politics of a deeply troubled country and saw firsthand the decline and fall of colonialism, the wars for independence, and the relentless clashes between the Hutus and Tutsis. And finally, having been caught in the crossfire of 1994's horrific genocide, Carr provides an unparalleled personal account that underscores her continued devotion to the country by her decision to turn her plantation into a shelter for Rwanda's lost and orphaned children."--Book jacket.
    Suggested Reading: Travel Tales
  • Me Against My Brother: At War in Somalia, Sudan and Rwanda
    by Peterson, Scott
    Publisher: Routledge $ 26 ISBN: 0415921988 Date: 2000
    starKirkus
    Filled with the dust, sweat, and powerful detail of real life, Me Against My Brother graphically illustrates how preventive action and a better understanding of Africa - especially by the U.S. - could have averted much suffering.