Our Lady of the Nile

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.

Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Archipelago Books
Published: 09/16/2014
ISBN: 9780914671039
Pages: 240
Weight: 0.60lbs
Size: 7.10h x 5.40w x 0.90d

Review Citations: Shelf Awareness 09/23/2014
Publishers Weekly 09/29/2014
Publishers Weekly Best Books 11/03/2014 pg. 30