Publisher: Huza Press, Rwanda
Pages: 210
Year: 2019
Category: Biography & Memoir, East Africa, History, Personal Memoir
Dimensions: 198 x 129mm
Yolande Mukagasana is a Rwandan nurse and
mother of three children who likes wearing jeans and designer glasses.
She runs her own clinic in Nyamirambo and is planning a party for her
wedding anniversary. But when genocide starts everything changes.
Targeted because she’s a successful woman and a Tutsi, she flees for her
life.
This gripping memoir describes the betrayal of friends and
help that comes from surprising places. Quick-witted and courageous,
Yolande never loses hope she will find her children alive.
Price range: £17.00 through £18.00
About the author
Yolande Mukagasana is a renowned Rwandan writer, public figure and
campaigner for the remembrance of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi.
She has authored four books about genocide and its aftermath, performed
her testimony in the iconic Rwanda 94 touring theatre production and has
received numerous international prizes for her work, including the
Alexander Langer Foundation Prize for Testimony and Solidarity, the
American Jewish Committee Moral Courage Award and an Honourable Mention
for the UNESCO Education for Peace Prize. Her first book, La mort ne
veut pas de moi, has been translated into Italian, Turkish, Norwegian,
Danish, Dutch, Hebrew and now English.
Review
“This book was one of the first literary testimonies that I read in
French about Rwanda. I found it profoundly moving — both realistic and
introspective. Thanks to this beautiful translation, it is at long last
available to the English-speaking public.”
Véronique Tadjo
“Reading Yolande Mukagasana’s book in French at the age of
fifteen changed my life. I realized that genocide is not a mass crime
but a single murder repeated hundreds of thousands of times. With this
testimony the genocide is no longer just a historical event, it is
instead the story of a woman, a mother, a Tutsi. And this is what makes
Yolande’s account universal.”
Gaël Faye
“Reading Not My Time to Die was an unsettling experience. I both
loved and hated following Yolande in her excruciatingly long journey to
safety in this beautifully written memoir. As someone who knew too
little about the genocide against the Tutsi, reading it made me want to
understand how such an abhorrent event could ever come about. This text
is an intense, but exceptional, introduction to the history of the
genocide, and I would recommend it to everyone. The 2019 English
translation is skillfully executed and finally gives the
English-speaking world access to Yolande Mukagasana’s memoir, originally
published in French more than two decades ago.”
Kiera Fields, Africa in Words
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