A review by sadiereadsagain
The Girl Who Smiled Beads: A Story of War and what comes After by Elizabeth Weil, Clemantine Wamariya, Clemantine Wamariya

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