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FINALIST FOR THE 2023 FRENCH-AMERICAN FOUNDATION TRANSLATION PRIZE
WINNER OF THE PRIX ÉTHIOPHILE, THE PRIX DES RACINES ET DES MOTS, AND THE PRIX DES CINQ CONTINENTS DE LA FRANCOPHONIE
Beata Umubyeyi Mairesse’s debut novel follows three generations torn apart by the genocide against the Tutsis, as they try to reconnect with one another, rebuild broken relationships, and find their place in today’s world.
Blanche returns to Rwanda after building a life in Bordeaux with her husband and young son, Stokely. Reuniting with her mother Immaculata, old wounds are reopened for both mother and daughter while Stokely, caught between two countries, tries to understand where he comes from and where he belongs.
“This story tells all our stories.”—Gaël Faye, author of Small Country
“This first novel, however, has the feel of a breakthrough, a transcendence. While ranging across two continents and three generations, it generates swift story momentum but never lacks for subtlety, bringing off a holocaust literature to rival the work on last century’s destruction of the Jews.”—Brooklyn Rail
“A poignant meditation on the violence that ruptured so many lives… Mairesse’s lyrical prose, translated by Alison Anderson, is mesmerizing.”—The Observer (UK)
“This award-winning novel tenderly unfurls the pain of generations without flinching from the complex legacy of colonization and war.”—Booklist
“A compact, trance-like meditation on the unintended effects of love and survival in the Rwandan diaspora.”—PopMatters
“A brief but powerful novel about the weight of silence and the intergenerational nature of trauma, and despite the weight of its subject matter, there is a light at its center.”—Asymptote
“Viscerally powerful.”—Financial Times (UK)
“As a story that crosses four generations of a family, it looks at how communication breaks down, and how these ties might be repaired….. Beautiful.”—Litro Magazine
“Beata Umubyeyi Mairesse is a writer of immense gifts and her novel has moved me to my core. Read it and meet a purveyor of human truths that are timeless, vivid and utterly essential.”—Fergal Keane, BBC War Correspondent and author of The Madness
“Beautifully wrought and utterly compelling, Mairesse’s debut novel takes us into the torment of civil war and out again to probe the links between mother and daughter, the different forms of estrangement migration can bring and the hopes of a new generation. I loved it.”—Lisa Appignanesi, author of Everyday Madness
“In her magnificent debut, Beata Umubyeyi Mairesse delicately tames ghosts and silences.”—Le Monde
“At once dark and luminous, this novel teaches us how people can transmit beauty even in the worst of circumstances.”—L’Express
“This splendid novel, and the courage of its heroic protagonists, are a testament to the power of literature to plant the seeds of hope and resilience.”—ELLE Magazine (France)
“Beata Umubyeyi Mairesse’s literary horizon is like a dazzling rainbow: the emotions it arouses illuminate with countless colors a storm-ravaged landscape.”—Jeune Afrique
“A poetic account of the strength of women.”—Cheek Magazine
“Through its two magnificently resilient women protagonists in search of healing, the novel combines the quest for origins with the question of the transmission of trauma… With her beautiful, multicolored voice, Beata Umubyeyi Mairesse lifts the lid of grief to release the words trapped underneath.”—Livres Hebdo