BOOK REVIEW - KILL THE DEVIL BY TONY MACAULAY AND JUVENS NSABIMANA

 

Kill the Devil

A Love Story from Rwanda

by Tony Macaulay and Juvens Nsabimana

2023 Matador

BLURB:

"You can run and leave a place behind, but you can't leave behind what is running inside of you."

A woman and a man nearly destroyed by extreme violence, hatred and despair, follow a rare and unexpected path, discover extreme forgiveness, love and hope.

Three fishermen pull a near lifeless woman from the lake; having suffered unimaginable loss.  Patricia's life is empty and her only motivation to go on is to bring the one responsible to justice.  Always on the verge of running, a man hides from his guilt in Kigali, terrified of his anonymity being compromised and his past uncovered.

Shining a light on the remarkable, untold stories of reconciliation in Rwanda since the genocide, Kill the Devil is a love story between a survivor and a perpetrator of genocide in a lesson for our times and for all time.....

REVIEW

From April to July, 1994, during the Rwandan civil war, extremist Hutu militia and civilians committed genocide on the Tutsi ethnic group and the Twa tribe on a scale that should have shocked the world to its core but did not to the extent that not one country intervened.  More than 600,000 Tutsi men, women and children were murdered in the most brutal ways, including widespread use of machetes and rifles.  Some sources cite higher numbers.  The aftermath of the horrific genocide months produced a long, hard road between deep-rooted hatred en route to reconciliation - and love.  (There is much more to the horrors of 1994 and it is worth reading about it in depth for the sheer scale of the atrocities.)

This superb novel is set against the genocide and the aftermath.  (The blurb above gives the gist of the story.)

Patricia witnesses the savage killing of her husband and two young children by rabid Hutus.  She receives a serious machete injury but survives.  The family has been betrayed by a long-time friend, Damascene, who identifies their house to a rabid mob.  For a long time, Patricia is in no mood to forgive the murderers or the betrayer, and lives a life of despair, so much so that she attempts suicide  by drowning.  The attempt fails as she is rescued by fishermen and taken to hospital where she is looked after by Doctor Louise.  After an uneasy start, their relationship and friendship blossoms with Louise encouraging Patricia that, in spite of the horrors of the past, life is worth living.  The obstacle-laden road to better times is not an easy route as the struggle to forgive rears its head again and again.  Patricia meets betrayer Damascene face-to-face firstly in an ugly scenario but over time things ease between them and..... (I'm not going into spoiler territory!)

This is a wonderfully written, gripping novel, well-plotted, well-paced.  It is a mix of every emotion you can think of, but the twists and turns of human feelings and reactions are handled with great descriptive and narrative skills.  Quite a brilliant collaboration.

The universal themes of love, reconciliation, forgiveness, etc are woven throughout, important lessons for all.  Biggest lesson is that hatred is a devil and to progress through life in a positive frame of mind that devil must be killed.

I loved it.  I learned a lot from the book and I recommend it highly.

Congratulations to Tony and Juvens for one heck of an achievement.  Every success with Kill the Devil.

(By the way, this story screams movie.)

Note:

From July 2011 to March 2023, I built my Dropped the Moon blog and received 333, 384 views.  Here is the link to that archive of musings, poetry, celebrity profiles, fast fiction, book reviews, music reviews, and much else - https://droppedthemoon.blogspot.com Please have a browse any time.  Due to a technical hitch, I have decided to create a new blog called '2023 New Dropped the Moon', to carry on doing what I have done since 2011.  I hope you enjoy both the archive and the continuance of posts.