This Voice in My Heart
A Runner's Memoir of Genocide, Faith, and Forgiveness
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
Gilbert Tuhabonye was a teenager at school in Burundi, Africa, when the centuries-old conflict between the Hutu and Tutsi tribes came into his life. Tuhabonye was herded into a small room with his fellow Tutsi students and teachers, where Hutus beat most of them to death, doused them with gasoline, and set them on fire.
Tuhabonye hid under burning bodies for more than eight hours before making his escape, the only survivor of the massacre. Badly burned himself, he credits his survival to his faith in God.
This Voice in My Heart is the tale of Tuhabonye’s remarkable journey. While his survival under such horrific conditions is astonishing, perhaps even more remarkable is his ability to forgive his attackers and move on with his life. This Voice in My Heart teaches the real meaning of courage, faith, and forgiveness.
Gilbert Tuhabonye was born on November 22, 1974, in the southern county of Songa in Burundi, East Central Africa. His parents were part of the Tutsi tribe and were farmers by profession. In October 1993, Tuhabonye was the only survivor of a massacre of Tutsi students and teachers at his school. After recovering from his injuries, he came to the United States to study, graduating from Abilene Christian University. He was a national champion runner, and is now a track coach in Austin, Texas, where he lives with his wife and two daughters.
Gary Brozek is a former Senior Editor at Plume/Penguin and lives in New York.
“Gilbert Tuhabonye’s story is much more than a common account of the American immigrant: it is an improbable, soul-searching journey of faith that inspires others to seek the One who lives within the heart.” – Rick Perry, Governor of Texas
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this inspirational autobiography woven with a gruesome eyewitness account, Tuhabonye recounts his maturation as a world-class runner and his survival of a Burundi massacre. Born in 1974 to a minority ethnic Tutsi family, Tuhabonye grew up in rural Burundi, his intelligence and industry aided by spectacular athletic ability. The narrative alternates between the author's life story and events on the day of the massacres. In October 1993, after a Tutsi coup ousted the Hutu president, a Hutu mob invaded Tuhabonye's high school, hacked many Tutsi students to death with machetes and forced the rest into a building that they set afire. Only the author survived. After months of painful recovery from severe burns, he regained the ability to walk and then run again, a healing process facilitated by his faith a devout Christian, he says he forgave the murderers and praises God for sparing him. Tuhabonye joined Burundi's national team, traveled the world, fell in love and moved to the U.S., where he now lives with his wife and daughter an uplifting ending to a simply told story of a man who persevered through hard work, luck, presence of mind and (he emphasizes) God's love.
