Biography

In 1992, Gabriel, ten years old, lives in Burundi with his French father, an entrepreneur, his Rwandan mother and his little sister, Ana, in a comfortable expatriate district. Gabriel spends most of his time with his friends, a cheerful band busy raising hell. A peaceful daily life, a gentle childhood that will dislocate at the same time as this "small country" of Africa is brutally battered by history. Gabriel sees with concern his parents separated, then the civil war looms, followed by the Rwandan drama. The neighborhood is upset. In successive waves, violence invades him, permeates him, and everything changes. Gabriel thought he was a child, he was going to discover himself as a mixed race, Tutsi, French...

I wrote this novel to bring out a forgotten world, to say our happy moments, discreet as girls from good families: the scent of lemongrass in the streets, walks in the evening along the bougainvilleas, naps in the afternoon behind mosquito nets, futile conversations, sitting on a beer rack, termites in stormy days.... »

With a rare sense of romance, Gaël Faye evokes the torments and questions of a child caught up in a story that makes him grow faster than expected. Nourished by a drama that the author knows well, the first novel of an exceptional magnitude, filled with shadows and light, tragic and humorous characters who try to survive the tragedy.