Reviews

I truly appreciated the originality and insight that Clemantine Wamariya has brought to a growing canon of refugee stories with this work. She presents her very individual experience and does not look for pity or embrace tragedy but rather gifts the story of her path to the reader to create a broader understanding of this global reality and also to help the reader see that we all have hidden depths that we can reach into when we need strength and courage.

roniiweasley's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

vanitar's review against another edition

Go to review page

4.0

A poignant memoir of a girl who survives the Rwandan massacre and her years of survival as a refugee travelling to various countries that are impacted and destroyed by war. After a number of years she immigrates to the US with her sister’s family but must face the aftermath and trauma of what she has walked through.

It is difficult to give a review of someone’s story, but I appreciate the rawness and beauty of Clementine’s journey and how she depicts it from a child’s perspective, alternating it with her perspective as an adult woman making sense of the atrocities she has seen and experienced in her life.

Having been born and raised in Canada, i have the perspective of a white privileged woman and yet reading Clementine’s story helps expand my worldview and understanding of those around me and what stories they might hold. I appreciated the empathy created within me as I read a story very different from my own and yet I feel connected to it as I feel connected to humanity and realize these are stories I need to hear more.

Beautifully written- there is a mix of devastation and hope throughout the book fueled by an amazing drive to survival. I am reminded of and amazed at the resilience of the human spirit to persevere and survive in the bleakest of circumstances.

Thank you Clementine for sharing your story with us.

sadiereadsagain's review against another edition

Go to review page

5.0

I came to this book completely ignorant of the Rwandan genocide or the refugee experience. And although this is just the story of one girl, one family, I feel I have learned so much. Not only the timeline and events, but the human factor. Because this is such a human book. It draws on the childhood memories of a girl displaced from her family for reasons she doesn't fully understand, into a life of constant upheaval, fear and poverty with only her older sister to share the years of camps and hunger with. The injustice of the genocide is a constant note throughout, though despite her confessions of self pity not once does Clemantine come across as anything other than incredibly strong. Particularly in her years in America, adjusting to a society so very different to where she had come from and trying to come to terms with all she'd been through in a totally removed environment. With all that's laid bare in this memoir, the quality of the writing should be inconsequential. But the story is told with simple yet effective prose, without sensationalist detail but with a beauty and honesty that I value so much in a memoir. A brilliant book, which has left me keen to learn more about Rwanda, and the refugee experience of those caught in it from all sorts of situations and conflicts.

I was kindly sent a NetGalley of this title by Random House UK, Cornerstone. All views my own

madisonallen's review against another edition

Go to review page

2.0

Unpopular opinion but I could not wait to be done with this book and start another. Beginning was great, attention grabbing but about 50 pages in it became confusing and I lost interest. The style of writing was tough and when it flips from past to present it often jumps weeks or months making it hard to follow. Her story was incredible and I learned a lot about the genocide in Rwanda, but this wouldn’t be the first memoir I would suggest to someone.

littlefreediverselibrariesgl's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging emotional informative inspiring sad tense medium-paced

5.0

More...