Small Country Small Country

Small Country

A Novel

    • 4.4 • 21 Ratings
    • $6.99

Publisher Description

Already an international sensation and prize-winning bestseller in France, an evocative coming-of-age story of a young boy, a lost childhood and a shattered homeland.
 
SHORTLISTED FOR THE ALBERTINE PRIZE • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY ESQUIRE • LONGLISTED FOR THE ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL FOR EXCELLENCE IN FICTION • LONGLISTED FOR THE ASPEN WORDS LITERARY PRIZE  

Burundi, 1992. For ten-year-old Gabriel, life in his comfortable expatriate neighborhood of Bujumbura with his French father, Rwandan mother and little sister Ana, is something close to paradise.
 
These are carefree days of laughter and adventure – sneaking Supermatch cigarettes and gorging on stolen mangoes – as he and his mischievous gang of friends transform their tiny cul-de-sac into their kingdom.
 
But dark clouds are gathering over this small country, and soon their peaceful existence will shatter when Burundi, and neighboring Rwanda, are brutally hit by civil war and genocide.  

A novel of extraordinary power and beauty, Small Country describes an end of innocence as seen through the eyes of a child caught in the maelstrom of history. Shot through with shadows and light, tragedy and humor, it is a stirring tribute not only to a dark chapter in Africa’s past, but also to the bright days that preceded it.

GENRE
Fiction & Literature
RELEASED
2018
June 5
LANGUAGE
EN
English
LENGTH
192
Pages
PUBLISHER
Random House Publishing Group
SELLER
Penguin Random House LLC
SIZE
1.3
MB

Customer Reviews

EyeMD ,

just… spectacular

Wow… spectacularly evocative and heart-rending; Mr. Faye — unknown to me until I chanced upon this book at random (while planning an October surgical mission trip to Burundi) — is an unequivocal talent and prodigy, chronicling an increasingly dark coming-of-age that lays bare the horrors of ethnic genocide that metastasized well beyond Rwanda’s borders at the close of the last century. There is so much to like about this book; its prose, its playful interludes, its bang-on ability to give a sense of place… and person… and time. Just wonderful. Not sure if the author has an encore in the works (would be tough to follow), but Mr. Faye — as I also learned — is an equally capable musical talent with multiple francophone albums to his credit (also worth a try/listen). Bravo!

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