Colpisce, ma forse anche no, che all’epoca, dall’aprile al luglio del 1994, abbiamo ignorato quello che stava succedendo in Rwanda (ma questo piccolo libro accenna anche a quello che era successo prima, a partire dall’indipendenza, in Rwanda e in Burundi), e adesso se ne parli perché a scriverne è un famoso rapper, la cui fama illumina un angolo di mondo rimasto troppo a lungo al buio. Coup de coeur Parole Enregistrée et Documents Sonores 2017», sur Académie Charles-Cros (consulté le 15 novembre 2021) At first, says Nabokov, he wanted to use two voices, sometimes even three. “He wanted to weave together the voice of the adult and the child all along. He tried that for a while.” I listened to Gaël Faye's own reading mixed with a collection of his songs, while working the night shift : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XoaSk... He is as influenced by Creole literature as he is by hip hop culture, and released an album in 2010 with the group Milk Coffee & Sugar. In 2013, his first solo album, Pili Pili sur un Croissant au Beurre, appeared. It was recorded between Bujumbura and Paris, and is filled with a plethora of musical influences: rap laced with soul and jazz, semba, Congolese rumba... In 2018 he received the prestigious Victoires de la Musique Award.

Just plain wow. If this book does not make you think or feel then you're dead inside. And to think I almost passed on this book. The description did not interest me. The cover certainly did not! I do not understand it at all. I used to believe I was above judging a book by its cover, but this is proof that I am not immune. The only reason I even looked twice at this book was the fact it was a BOTM selection. I have found that those books that make the cut are usually pretty vibrant stories. Sure there have still been a few clunkers but not this time. Cummins, Anthony (10 June 2018). "Small Country by Gaël Faye – review". The Guardian . Retrieved 25 April 2020.The prologue’s short dialogue between father and son, which sets the novel’s tone, identifies the key geopolitical issues with the acuity of a ten-year-old’s perception of the times’ changing winds. To Gabriel’s question: Why are the Tutsis and Hutus fighting?, his father responds, Because they don’t have the same nose. Then, ironizing on the persistence of children, the narrator recalls a classmate categorizing Cyrano de Bergerac as Tutsi, before concluding: “Le fond de l’air avait changé. Peu importe le nez qu’on avait, on pouvait le sentir” (Something in the air had changed. And you could smell it, no matter what kind of nose you had). Petit pays thus moves from the personal to national and international political tensions, with Gabriel’s parents’ breakup presaging the civil war that would tear Burundi apart and that continues to this day, with its summary trials of human-rights activists, hate propaganda, and ideological signposts that characterize genocides. Le 19 octobre 2018, il dévoile Balade brésilienne, avec Flavia Coelho en vedette, un extrait de son second EP Des fleurs, prévu pour le 2 novembre de la même année [9 ]. En 2019, il fait une apparition dans l'album La Nuit du réveil d' Oxmo Puccino avec qui il interprète Parce que la vie. He said ‘ j’ai trop kiffé’(in slang, ‘I loved it’), about writing the book. He’s so inspired. What’s exciting for me is that he has a need to build and move forward, he’s ambitious in the most noble sense of the term. With each novel, he’ll go further.”

The assassination of Rwandan president Juvénal Habyarimana and Burundian president Cyprien Ntaryamira in 1993 - Their airplane was shot down as they landed in Rwanda. Genocidal killings of Tutsis and murders of moderate Hutus began the next dayLa storia sembra simile a quella personale dello scrittore che però, fortunatamente, mi sembra di capire che lasciando l’Africa avesse accanto i suoi genitori. GF: In France it’s much easier. In France there is more structure, there is a professional network. In Rwanda, it’s still basically a no man’s land. There is still much work to do. There are almost no concert halls, no libraries, no bookstores, no professional networks. There are almost no professional artists. The artists who become professional, they leave Rwanda. The only professional artists who still live in Rwanda, they make ads for Téléphone Mobile, or the beer companies. It’s complicated to be an artist. There are churches, but… just to develop a project, people must do it on the side. It’s hard to make art that is pushed to the professional level. This interview took place in the lounge of the Empire Hotel at the Lincoln Center, where a truly fascinating nexus of cultural organizations, including the French Embassy and Faye’s book editor, had arranged for him to stay during his tour.

GF: Dépaysement is less strong than exile. It’s like, you live in San Francisco, you move to New York. If you feel off about it, you say, “I am displaced.” You can be displaced in yourself at only a few kilometers away. For me, dépaysement is more a direct rapport with the environment. Exile is a much stronger internal emotion. Dépaysement is a mood. Dépaysement can be about the time it takes you to acclimate.It is a fiction story but it reads as a memoir because it is such an emotionally charged and chilling story!

It was a terrifying time, but after having lived through it himself, the author knows how to expertly intertwine unspeakable horrors with the small moments of beauty and humor that characterize a boy just trying to live like everything is still normal. It’s not always an easy read, but I ask you to trust me when I say it’s a worthy one. Don’t forget, books that break your heart also strengthen your soul. The author doesn't spare the readers, the terror, the horror, but also how living with these conditions becomes the new normal. It is not until it is brought to their door that this changes. We are not left hanging about the outcome, the last end of the book features some very insightful thoughts in a letter Gabby writes. It also catches us up on the near future, what happened to some of these characters, and the effect in had on their lives. The third book about Rwanda that I have read this month, all of them both different and the same. This is a well done story, one definitely worth reading. Astrid de Larminat, « Gaël Faye, lauréat du prix du roman Fnac», Le Figaro,‎ 1 er septembre 2016 ( ISSN 0182-5852, lire en ligne, consulté le 5 septembre 2016) .a et b Marie-Catherine Mardi, « Gaël Faye, ce qui ne tue pas rend plus fort», RFI, 26 septembre 2012 Nabokov remembers visiting Faye in Rwanda’s capital, Kigali, where he lived for a time with his wife and daughters, when they received the first proofs of Small Country. For me, this is my story. It doesn’t have to do with the fact that I’m an artist or not. It’s my story. I lost family in the genocide. In Small Country, a man grapples with the senselessness of war and it's permanent effects. From a young age, Gaby wants nothing more than to overcome his overwhelming fear, but that seems to become an impossibility after everything he witnesses. I liked the writing, so my reservations are mostly a matter of storytelling preferences. There are many powerful scenes, but there was also an emotional gap that I couldn’t bridge.