Description

A young man journeys from Paris to Rwanda to discover the truth about his mother’s past and the country of her birth, from bestselling and prize-winning Rwandan-French novelist and hip-hop artist Gael Faye

‘A luminous poetic quality … unforgettable’ Leila Slimani
‘Utterly, captivatingly brilliant’ Philippe Sands

Milan – the twelve-year-old son of a French father and a Rwandan mother – blames flunking his exams on the emotional trauma of the genocide in his mother’s homeland. It’s a convenient excuse: growing up outside Paris in the 1990s, the violence is an abstraction that only reaches him through distant television broadcasts.

That is, until Milan’s mother introduces him to Claude, a young cousin with a bandaged head who has come to France seeking medical treatment. Thrilled to have a new playmate, Milan treats Claude as a brother until one day, he is sent back to Rwanda as quickly as he came.

Four years later, Milan travels for the first time to Rwanda, encountering a beguiling country and family members he never knew existed, and reuniting with Claude. But the trip raises more questions than it answers – about Milan’s family history, the war and its aftershocks.

Over the course of many years, Milan returns to Rwanda again and again, compelled to confront the past and imagine a new kind of future. Jacaranda is a deeply felt portrait of a man seeking to understand his family and his nation.

‘A writer of great promise and grace’ Chigozie Obioma
‘Gael Faye’s talent is breathtaking’ Imbolo Mbue

Publisher Review

‘There is magic in Gael 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.’ * Leila Slimani * ‘A work of rare, poetic and haunting qualities, on memory, identity and justice, and the humanity that horror might beget. Memorable and utterly, captivatingly brilliant.’ * Philippe Sands * ‘A novel about time and its effects, about what it does to people, to memory, to places. . . .Above all a novel that speaks out against silence.’ * Le Monde * ‘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 * ‘[A] multibranched verite-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 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 *