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Book Overview
Tierno Mon nembo was among the African authors invited to Rwanda after the 1994 Tutsi-Hutu massacre to "write genocide into memory." In his novel The Oldest Orphan, that is precisely what Mon nembo does, to devastating effect. Powerful testimony to an unspeakable historical reality, this story is told by an adolescent on death row in a prison in Kigali, the capital of Rwanda. Dispassionately, almost cynically, the teenager Faustin tells his tale, alternating between his days in jail, his adventures wandering the countryside after his parents and most of the people of his village have been massacred, and his escapades as a cheerful hoodlum in the streets of Kigali. Only slowly does the full horror of his parents' death and his own experience return to Faustin. His realization strikes the reader with shattering force, for it carries in its wake the impossible but inescapable questions presented by such a murderous episode of history and such a crippling experience for a child, a people, and a nation.
Format:Paperback
Language:English
ISBN:0803282850
ISBN13:9780803282858
Release Date:March 2004
Publisher:Bison Books
Length:96 Pages
Weight:0.40 lbs.
Dimensions:0.5" x 5.9" x 8.8"
Customer Reviews
2 ratings
Huck Finn in Rwanda
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 19 years ago
Sometimes, constructing an elaborate fiction-as Tierno Monénembo does here-reveals an emotional truth deeper than would be possible with any journalistic account. Mr. Monénembo has lived in exile from his native Guinea since 1969, studying in Senegal, Abidjan, and Lyon before settling in Normandy. The Oldest Orphan is his seventh novel, and second of his books to be translated to English. The narrative is fragmented between flashback and a blur of present tense, where the protagonist Faustin's memory wanders between age 10 and age15. At age 15, Faustin exists in prison, awaiting execution, accused of killing the boy who allegedly raped his sister. Faustin faces heroic challenges with humor, resourcefulness, and remnants of an innocence that has been brutally truncated by genocidal mania. The facts are difficult, and blurred, against the backdrop of social & political upheaval. This is an important novella concerning the Rwanda genocide of 1994, written by one of the strongest literary voices available in translation from the African continent.
Must read!
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 20 years ago
This book is beautiful! From such sadness Mr. Monenembo has wrought exquisite humanity. I could not put it down. It is Africa viewed by an African instead of Europeans or Americans. In a compelling fashion Mr. Monenembo focuses not on the politics but on the people.
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