Life Laid BareLife Laid Bare
the Survivors in Rwanda Speak
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Book, 2006
Current format, Book, 2006, , No Longer Available.Book, 2006
Current format, Book, 2006, , No Longer Available. Offered in 0 more formats"To make the effort to understand what happened in Rwanda is a painful task that we have no right to shirk–it is part of being a moral adult."
–Susan Sontag
In the late 1990s, French author and journalist Jean Hatzfeld made several journeys into the hilly, marshy region of the Bugesera, one of the areas most devastated by the Rwandan genocide of April 1994, where an average of five out of six Tutsis were hacked to death with machete and spear by their Hutu neighbors and militiamen. In the villages of Nyamata and N'tarama, Hatzfeld interviewed fourteen survivors of the genocide, from orphan teenage farmers to the local social worker. For years the survivors had lived in a muteness as enigmatic as the silence of those who survived the Nazi concentration camps. In Life Laid Bare, they speak for those who are no longer alive to speak for themselves; they tell of the deaths of family and friends in the churches and marshes to which they fled, and they attempt to account for the reasons behind the Tutsi extermination. For many of the survivors "life has broken down," while for others, it has "stopped," and still others say that it "absolutely must go on."
These horrific accounts of life at the very edge contrast with Hatzfeld's own sensitive and vivid descriptions of Rwanda's villages and countryside in peacetime. These voices of courage and resilience exemplify the indomitable human spirit, and they remind us of our own moral responsibility to bear witness to these atrocities and to never forget what can come to pass again. Winner of the Prix France Culture and the Prix Pierre Mille, Life Laid Bare allows us, in the author's own words, "to draw as close as we can get to the Rwandan genocide."
Published in its original French in 2000, this title was the winner of the Prix France Culture and the Prix Pierre Mille. Journalist Hatzfeld interviewed fourteen survivors of the Rwandan genocide from the region of Bugesera, where militiamen and Hutu neighbors killed five out of six Tutsis in a period just over a month in 1994. Each of the survivors has his own chapter told in first person, in lengths varying from a few pages to tens of them. The author provides a chronology and an introduction to the events, as well as a few notes on the statistics of the genocide. This title is heart wrenching in its blunt honesty, and is intended for the general public as much as the academic community. Annotation ©2008 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
Draws on interviews with fourteen survivors of the 1994 Rwandan genocide, recounting their experiences as well as the lives of victims close to them, their perspectives on why they were targeted, and their outlooks in the tragedy's aftermath. Original.
–Susan Sontag
In the late 1990s, French author and journalist Jean Hatzfeld made several journeys into the hilly, marshy region of the Bugesera, one of the areas most devastated by the Rwandan genocide of April 1994, where an average of five out of six Tutsis were hacked to death with machete and spear by their Hutu neighbors and militiamen. In the villages of Nyamata and N'tarama, Hatzfeld interviewed fourteen survivors of the genocide, from orphan teenage farmers to the local social worker. For years the survivors had lived in a muteness as enigmatic as the silence of those who survived the Nazi concentration camps. In Life Laid Bare, they speak for those who are no longer alive to speak for themselves; they tell of the deaths of family and friends in the churches and marshes to which they fled, and they attempt to account for the reasons behind the Tutsi extermination. For many of the survivors "life has broken down," while for others, it has "stopped," and still others say that it "absolutely must go on."
These horrific accounts of life at the very edge contrast with Hatzfeld's own sensitive and vivid descriptions of Rwanda's villages and countryside in peacetime. These voices of courage and resilience exemplify the indomitable human spirit, and they remind us of our own moral responsibility to bear witness to these atrocities and to never forget what can come to pass again. Winner of the Prix France Culture and the Prix Pierre Mille, Life Laid Bare allows us, in the author's own words, "to draw as close as we can get to the Rwandan genocide."
Published in its original French in 2000, this title was the winner of the Prix France Culture and the Prix Pierre Mille. Journalist Hatzfeld interviewed fourteen survivors of the Rwandan genocide from the region of Bugesera, where militiamen and Hutu neighbors killed five out of six Tutsis in a period just over a month in 1994. Each of the survivors has his own chapter told in first person, in lengths varying from a few pages to tens of them. The author provides a chronology and an introduction to the events, as well as a few notes on the statistics of the genocide. This title is heart wrenching in its blunt honesty, and is intended for the general public as much as the academic community. Annotation ©2008 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
Draws on interviews with fourteen survivors of the 1994 Rwandan genocide, recounting their experiences as well as the lives of victims close to them, their perspectives on why they were targeted, and their outlooks in the tragedy's aftermath. Original.
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- New York : Other Press, c2006.
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