“Here, we’re privileged. There, we’re nobodies.” - A white expat husband tells his black Rwandan wife the stark reality of their life in Burundi as opposed to his native France in the 1990s. But the underlying message is that she needs to turn her back on the lower class Burundians and to 'know her place.' In a fight that had been brewing for years, a stark utterance causes a wife to leave her husband and children. Yet, Gaby’s father insists that the privilege of a private school, a gated house, and servants would never be possible if the family lived in France. 

A family wedding, the search for a stolen bike, a crocodile hunt, a plan to steal mangos. Gaby’s life growing up in the mostly upperclass section of the capital city of Bujumbura is comfortable, but civil war strikes both Gaby’s home country and his mother’s Rwanda at the same time. Between the conflict in the family and the fights erupting in the streets, Gaby is pulled in many directions: family, loyalty, and youth.

Faye writes a terrific narrator with an authentic and realistic voice. Gaby sees and internalizes all aspects of a life that is quickly swirling around him. The neighborhood friendships and rivalries, Gaby’s mother’s strong political ties vs his father’s attempt to stay neutral, the promise and hope of democracy in the first elections in the country in 30 years. These are all told from the perspective of a young boy who only seeks to find his own identity in the troubling times of adolescence. Is he Rwandan, is he French, is he Burundian?

Small Country is a beautiful book that is filled with perfectly drawn anecdotes that tie Gaby's young life together. It is a powerful story that tells of a world that can be raw and bleak yet full of innocence. I can see why this novel is so popular in France and can predict it will have many fans here in the US. Highly recommended.

Btw I wrote this review while streaming Faye’s music. I really like his songs too.

Thank you to NetGalley, Crown Publishing, and Gaël Faye for the advanced copy for review.

Small Country is a tale set within the country of Burundi, told from the perspective of a ten-year old boy during a time period of civil war and genocide.

"I am haunted by the idea of returning. Not a day goes by without the country calling to me. A secret sound, a scent on the breeze, a certain afternoon light, a gesture, sometimes silence is enough to stir my childhood memories."

The prologue begins with a conversation between a father and son, including a crude description of the major ethnic groups within Burundi. We're then introduced to Gabriel as an adult, writing a letter to an unknown confidant as he tries to define who exactly he is and recount his childhood memories.

Gabriel, affectionately known as Gaby to his family and friends, is born to a French Father and Rwandan mother and leads a somewhat privileged life in his expatriate neighborhood of Bujumbura. The first half of the book is fairly lighthearted, and while there are some moments of tension and conflict centered around the parents and their marriage, this part of the book focuses on the innocent adventures of a boy and his group of friends. The tone changes in the second half, however, as Burundi moves to a democratic system for the first time in its' history and political conflict arises. Gaby is quickly forced to grow up, and the author does a great job of describing the abrupt death of his innocence as he is surrounded by and witness to unspeakable horrors and tragedies. Eventually, Gaby is forced to leave the place he has always called home, and the story ends with Gaby returning to Burundi after a number of years, perhaps to finally determine who he actually is.

"I used to think I was exiled from my country. But, in retracing the steps of my past, I have understood that I was exiled from my childhood. Which seems so much crueller."

The author masterfully and vividly describes the natural beauty of Burundi, and how Gaby's life was torn apart by the senseless violence caused by the civil wars in Burundi and the neighboring country of Rwanda. I could almost pinpoint the moment in which Gaby lost the blissful ignorance that accompanies childhood, and that's a testament to the depth with which Gaël Faye tells this story. Due to the way the book is written, it's a quick read, but its' impact is great.

Special thanks to Crown Publishing Group and NetGalley! I received this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A coming-of-age tale set during the Burundian Civil War. Ten-year-old Gabriel lives in Burundi with his Rwandan mother and French father. He has a normal childhood in his beautiful homeland until the horrors of war arrive in his neighborhood. Gabriel wants to ignore all the conflict going on around him, but there comes a day where he can't hide anymore and he's presented with an impossible choice.

The book is 192 pages and has similar word density to a YA novel, so it's a quick read. The topic is inherently emotional, but the method of storytelling kept me at an emotional distance. I felt like I was viewing the story through too many filters; it's told through the limited view of a privileged child from the perspective of an adult. I was actually most emotionally attached to the minor characters (the aunt's family and Prothé). The first half reads like a memoir and the lack of tension in the meandering tale of Gaby's childhood antics almost lost my interest completely. However, the author was effective in illustrating the many sides of his homeland by showing the stark contrast between Gaby's idyllic life before the war versus the horrors that followed. The story picked up in the second half, but the distance kicked in again—one of the most brutal and unforgettable parts is simply a recollection from a character who was a bit of an enigma for me.

While I had trouble connecting to Gaby and his immediate family, there are many concepts and parts in this book that will stay with me forever:
• Privilege: Gaby discusses how war initially affected the various economic classes differently. His life was relatively normal for a long time, even as the war raged at the homes of his family's domestic staff. At one point, Gaby's Rwandan mother shows resentment towards him and his sister because of their French blood.
• There are many things that Gaby doesn't understand because he's a child: "The country was built on whispers and riddles." Eventually, the adult conflicts start creeping into his classroom and he begins to perceive things he'd missed before. The loss of innocence was heartbreaking.
• The way war and politics eventually break down all barriers and inflict themselves on everyone.
• The relationship between violence and fear & the parallels between the children's street conflicts and the war.
• Differences between leaving home by choice and being forced to flee.
• A bar where people held discussions in the protection of darkness.
• The letter in Chapter 27.

In Small Country, a man grapples with the senselessness of war and it's permanent effects. From a young age, Gaby wants nothing more than to overcome his overwhelming fear, but that seems to become an impossibility after everything he witnesses. I liked the writing, so my reservations are mostly a matter of storytelling preferences. There are many powerful scenes, but there was also an emotional gap that I couldn’t bridge.

This short coming of age novel tells the story of a young boy growing up in Burundi in the early 1990's. His youth is, in many ways, unexceptional. Until. He is the son of a French father and a Tutsi Rwandan mother. He visits Rwanda just before the genocide comes into full force. The backlash in Burundi causes Tutsi to preemptive violence against Hutus in this neighboring country. The writing here is absolutely beautiful. This novel has so much to say about childhood, violence, grief and humanity. There was a feel here of other writing that I loved: Seven Good Years and The Body (Stand By Me), especially. Highly recommended.

I fell into Small Country immediately, the characters pulled me in and the descriptions of the communities and country brought it all to life for me.

Writing: 4.5 Plot: 4 Characters: 4

A powerful coming-of-age novel in the politically charged climate of Burundi in the 1990s. Gabriel (Gaby) is the son of a French father and Rwandan mother living in Bujumbura, the capital city of Burundi. He is 10 years old when the country — filled with hope and expectation — holds its first multi-party election in 1993. This is a personal and humanistic version of the ensuing events in both Burundi and nearby Rwanda. Told from a the perspective of a child, it blends observations of surroundings, tensions, and shifts in the interactions between people who used to simply be “part of the neighborhood.”

Told through the memories of an adult Gaby who is visiting Burundi after living in France for 15 years, the novel is imbued with nostalgia for the innocence of childhood and the beauty of the home he remembers, while simultaneously mournful at the irreparable damage done. Beautiful descriptions of the landscape, childhood diversions, and familial relationships. The story is necessarily sad, but not depressing or hopeless.

I hadn’t heard of the author before, but apparently he is a well-known French rapper and hip hop star. Originally published as Petit Pays in France in 2016, the book is the winner of five French literary prizes. You may enjoy listening to his song of the same name – I found it absolutely beautiful: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTF2pwr8lYk

3.5. but rounding up because better than other, recent 3s.

I have read a fair number of books set in war torn countries [here it's Burundi --Hutus vs. Tutsis]. But, this novel didn't grab me as much as I hoped it might. Interesting and informative, certainly. Well written too. Nonetheless, it didn't really grab me.

The setting: advertised as a coming of age story. Burundi, 1992. Gabriel (10) lives in the comfortable expatriate neighborhood of Bujumbura with his French [white] father, Rwandan mother, and little sister, Ana. His gang of friends, relatives, servants, and neighbors, all enter into this story about a loss of innocence amidst a raging civil war and genocide. Note: autobiographical. The author was born in 1982 in Burundi to a French father and a Rwandan mother. They moved to France in 1995 [as did the family portrayed in the book].

What was interesting--it is told from a young person's point of view. And in that regard, even more affecting/devastating.

His parents become estranged from one another as he notes: "The trouble was that my parents were two lost teenagers suddenly asked to grown into reponsibile adults.... What had come so naturally at first was now backfiring...as it dawned on them that they had confused desire with love, and that each of them had invented qualities in the other."

The situation around the family continued to deteriorate. "People only ever replied with: "Not bad." Because life could no longer be altogether good..." "Gaby states: "When I grow up I want to be a mechanic, so nothing ever stays broken in my life." "A glowering, uninvited ghost showing up at regular intervals to remind us that peace is merely a brief interlude between two wars." "Genoicide is an oil slick; those who don't drown in it are polluted for life."

One small ray of light. The friendship that grew beween Madame Economopoulos and Gaby; she lent him books from her vast library. Once he and his friends stole mangoes from her property and sold them [back] to her. A complete turnaround for Gaby both in his regard from her and how reading widened his world.

The most intense part of the book for me was what happened to Maman when she went to her Aunt Eusebie's house. She relayed the story to her family; it affected her the rest of her life [and so her children as she went somewhat crazy--PTSD?]

Recommend, but not a rave.

'I sway between two shores, and this is the disease of my soul.'

Before ‘something in the air had changed’, ten-year old Gabriel led a charmed life. Ruling the neighborhood with his pals,getting up to antics like stealing delicious mangoes from their neighbors, one in particular who they would sell them back to unbeknownst to her, they were a brotherhood. Days spent playing football, dodging a bully or swimming in the river seemed like endless happiness. There would come a day when the boys would begin to think differently about many things, including each other. Gabriel and his sister Ana are children of a French father and a Rwandan mother. Their lives are safe, comfortable due to their father, living in a ex-pat community, comapred to the poverty surrounding them, including their own hired help. Gabriel isn’t always the most aware of the differences between his place in the country compared to the locals. He will never really be one of them. The story begins as a carefree coming of age and quickly descends into the horrors of violence, war.

His parents have a malfunction of some sort in their marriage. His mother Yvonne knows what it’s like to be a refugee, to always be aware she is nothing but a foreigner. Where Gabriel’s father Michel sees beauty, comfort, she can ony see the poverty and struggle. She would love nothing more than to leave for Europe, but Michel knows back in his home they would be just ordinary people, in a city without the wilds of Africa. Where Yvonne sees safety, a place to raise her children without the threat of death looming over them all if she could just get to Europe, Michel thinks she is thankless, doesn’t recognize the blessings of the comfortable life he affords her. She knows all too well the reality of what could happen, what is always brewing beyond the beauty of the rolling hills. He thinks a French passport can save her, she knows better.

At the French school he attends in Bujumbura, he has a French pen pal, a girl named Laure, and the letters they share lend to the early sweetness, the spirited boy he is before the clouds darken and he is infected by his country’s horror. The saddest letter he pens is to Christian (you have to read).

In a breath it all changes. There are whispers about Hutsi and Tutsi people (like his mother) , nothing Gabby quite understands except they are different ethnic groups and you can tell who is who by their features. There are less Tutsi than Hutu, the Tutsi are tall the Hutu have short noses and if they are the same, share the same country, why then why the hatred? It will take a slaughter to make the differences a reality and his childhood will vanish as if overnight. After the night of a coup, the death of presidents his mother knows her family is in trouble. The Tutsi are blamed for the assassination, the Hutu are told to take up arms, families are being massacred. Only the Westerners will be evacuated, hell has broken loose. Gabby’s Maman waits, frantic, sick with fear until finally she is able to leave for Rwanda in search of her family.

Some of Gabriel’s friends are leaving with their family for the safety of France. The brotherhood is cracking, Gino is turning their innocent band of brothers into a violent gang. If they aren’t willing to take part in the bloodshed to protect their own streets, they will all die! Gabriel has had enough of senseless killings, wants no part in it. Why does he have to prove loyalty as Hutu or Tutsi, they are just children! Can’t they just go back to what they once were, to boyish antics? But he will have to chose, he may be forced into committing a horror swallowed by fear and he will never be able to return to the innocence of his carefree youth. The help is dying off, just like that, found in ditches. With schools closing and everything intensifying his father knows he must see to his children’s safety, get them out of there. The family will forever be split.

He tells us, now an adult living in France, that he was from a place surrounded by family, friends, acquaintances and warmth…but that place is long gone. It’s not just the land the makes a place your homeland. Upon his return the reader learns what became of his mother and father and all the people from the life he was in exile from. That his sister wants nothing but to forget all of it is her way of coping with the unbearable. It’s shocking, what fear can make us do, that brother turns against brother. There is a moment in the novel when Yvonne breaks down, shocked by what happened to her family and it is one of the most gut wrenching narratives I’ve ever read about death.

It’s hard to write a review about Africa’s not so distant history (1992) and the same could be said for any country, we can read about genocide, war, political upheaval in books but never scratch the surface of what it was like for the people who lived through it. Reading can never be a way to fully absorb what it means to be in fear of your life based on your ethnicity, to watch those you love slaughtered, to be cut from the roots of your birthplace, torn from the arms of your parents, lose the carefree innocence of childhood but it can be a voice, an echo of those lost. This was a tough read, and I thank my lucky stars for my place in the world, it could easily have been me born to horror.

Publication Date: June 5, 2018

Crown Publishing

Hogarth