This is not your classic immigrant story: In his debut novel, musician Gaël Faye does not talk much about the life of a refugee in France. Rather, he This is not your classic immigrant story: In his debut novel, musician Gaël Faye does not talk much about the life of a refugee in France. Rather, he talks about life in Burundi, where the happy childhood of his protagonist Gaby starts to disintegrate when his parents (a Tutsi from Rwanda and a Frenchman) separate and it becomes less and less feasible for the adults around him to shelter him from the growing political turmoil. Gaby witnesses different forms of violence and finally neighbouring Ruanda being ruined by a genocide, the repercussions of which spread to his hometown, his friends and his own family. Faye shows why people leave the country and the people they love and come to Europe - because they want to survive, because they have seen way to many burning bodies, rotting human remains, torture and pointless killings. There are some seriously haunting scenes in this book, so beware before picking it up. In this novel, safety is a cul-de-sac.
Faye, born in 1982, grew up in Burundi and fled to France in 1995 - it remains unclear how much of this book is autobiographical, but there's a documentary in which Faye visits Burundi and Ruanda, including places from his childhood (here's the trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjWxA...) and a very telling song entitled "Petit Pays" he did in 2012 (here's the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTF2p...).
So all in all, the story and the imagery are strong, the only thing that bothered me was that parts of the book are just over-explained which takes away from the poetic merit: When an old and a young person talk about the country, we are informed that one stands for the future and one for the past, we are informed that the whole violence is pointless and so on - all of this is of course correct, but I don't need to have it spelt out for me, on the contrary: Faye can trust in his material and his abilities, the scenes alone are much stronger without all the (unnecessary) explanations.
This certainly is a good book, but I think Faye is able to write a very good book, and I can't wait to read it....more
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