Left to Tell

Title: Left to Tell

Author: Immaculee Ilibagiza

Pages: 214

Genre: Memoir

Grade: B+

Synopsis: 1994 Rwanda was overtaken by a Hutu majority and in the course of about 3 months over 1 million Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed in a bloody genocide.  Neighbors were pitted against neighbors and anybody caught hiding Tutsis were killed.  Immaculee Ilibigiza had found hiding in a small private bathroom in a pastor's house with 8 other women while the rest of her family in Rwanda were slaughtered.  During the 91 days that she remained hidden in the cramped bathroom she learned to rely on prayer to help pull her through.

My Review:  It is absolutely shocking that this type of tragedy can still happen in the modern world.  Once the fighting commenced, the UN and Belgium sent peacekeeping troops, but it was too dangerous for them to stay and the world was not willing to send troops in a number that could have stopped the genocide much sooner.  I started reading this book shortly after returning from Uganda (which borders Rwanda to the north).  I loved being able to better understand the types of places that were described in the book.  It helped the book come to life, all the while feeling nauseous that humans can still be so utterly brutish and murderous one to another.