Jacaranda
A Novel
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Jacaranda
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Summary
“There is magic in Gaël Faye’s writing . . . This book is unforgettable.” —Leïla Slimani, internationally bestselling author of The Perfect Nanny
“Gaël Faye’s talent is breathtaking.” —Imbolo Mbue, author of Behold the Dreamers
Milan—the twelve-year-old son of a French father and a Rwandan mother—blames flunking his exams on the emotional toll of the genocide in his mother’s homeland. In truth, his mother never talks about Rwanda; the violence is an abstraction that only reaches their French suburb through television broadcasts. That is, until Milan meets Claude, a small boy with a bandaged head whom Milan’s mother introduces as a cousin who has come to France seeking medical treatment. Milan embraces him as the brother he’s always wanted—until, one day, Claude is sent back to Rwanda without warning, leaving him heartbroken and confused.
Four years later, the boys reunite as teenagers when Milan visits Rwanda for the first time with his mother in the wake of her divorce and discovers a more fractured and vibrant community than he could have imagined. But the trip raises more questions for him than it answers—about family, the war, and its aftershocks. Over the course of many years, Milan will return to Rwanda again and again, compelled to unearth the secrets that have taken root in the shadows of long silences, confront the past, and imagine a new future.
Partly inspired by acclaimed author Gaël Faye’s own relationship with Rwanda and its history, Jacaranda is a rich and deeply felt portrait of a man seeking to understand his family and his nation as it heals from the unthinkable.
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Critic reviews
“There is magic in Gaël Faye’s writing. A luminous poetic quality that sheds light on history without tempering it—probing, with supreme clarity, the secrets of a country and a family. Through the beauty of his style, he speaks humanely and compassionately about the worst atrocities. This book is unforgettable.”—Leïla Slimani, internationally bestselling author of The Perfect Nanny
“[Jacaranda is] a novel about time and its effects, about what it does to people, to memory, to places. . . . But Faye’s book is above all a novel that speaks out against silence.”—Le Monde
“[A] multibranched vérité-fiction . . . Jacaranda’s architexture fills in the gaping memories with the buried truths that imperil trusted friendships, vindicate familial intimations, and appease consciences.”—World Literature Today
“A deeply felt exploration of memory, inheritance, and the possibility that something beautiful can emerge from the worst type of atrocity . . . populate[d] with vivid and morally complex characters.”—Publishers Weekly
“[Jacaranda evokes] the fragile beauty of the world and resilience in the face of the wounds of exile. A novel of memory and reconstruction, Jacaranda portrays souls scarred by history but driven by the desire for reconciliation.”—Institut français
“A novel of painful beauty, whose gentleness of tone only serves to underscore the horror of the genocide and the difficulties of its aftermath.”—Madame Figaro
“An extraordinary life force emanates from these pages.”—La Croix
“[Jacaranda is] a novel about time and its effects, about what it does to people, to memory, to places. . . . But Faye’s book is above all a novel that speaks out against silence.”—Le Monde
“[A] multibranched vérité-fiction . . . Jacaranda’s architexture fills in the gaping memories with the buried truths that imperil trusted friendships, vindicate familial intimations, and appease consciences.”—World Literature Today
“A deeply felt exploration of memory, inheritance, and the possibility that something beautiful can emerge from the worst type of atrocity . . . populate[d] with vivid and morally complex characters.”—Publishers Weekly
“[Jacaranda evokes] the fragile beauty of the world and resilience in the face of the wounds of exile. A novel of memory and reconstruction, Jacaranda portrays souls scarred by history but driven by the desire for reconciliation.”—Institut français
“A novel of painful beauty, whose gentleness of tone only serves to underscore the horror of the genocide and the difficulties of its aftermath.”—Madame Figaro
“An extraordinary life force emanates from these pages.”—La Croix
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