Our Lady of the Nile
Author
Original Work
Translator
Language
Year
2014
Publisher
Country
United States
Pages
244
ISBN
9780914671039
Friendship, deceit, fear, and persecution at an elite boarding school for young women in Rwanda, fifteen years before the 1994 genocide of the Tutsi . . . “Mukasonga’s masterpiece” (Julian Lucas, NYRB) Scholastique Mukasonga drops us into an elite Catholic boarding school for young women perched on the edge of the Nile. Parents send their daughters to Our Lady of the Nile to be molded into respectable citizens and to escape the dangers of the outside world. Fifteen years prior to the 1994 Rwandan genocide, we watch as these girls try on their parents’ preconceptions and attitudes, transforming the lycée into a microcosm of the country’s mounting racial tensions and violence. In the midst of the interminable rainy season, everything unfolds behind the closed doors of the school: friendship, curiosity, fear, deceit, prejudice, and persecution. With masterful prose that is at once subtle and penetrating, Mukasonga captures a society hurtling towards horror.— Google Books
Press Reviews
- The Guardianby John Self · Mar 2021
Tensions at a school for privileged girls in Rwanda foreshadow the 1994 genocide in this surprisingly bright, light-touch debut
- The Guardianby Sarah Moss · Mar 2021
In this eerily sinister story set at an elite girls’ boarding school, both comedy and tragedy are hauntingly understated as it builds towards its violent climax
- The Guardianby Rachel Cooke · Oct 2015
Scholastique Mukasonga’s novel about life at a Rwandan girls’ school before the genocide is charming but chastening
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