Petit pays [Prix Goncourt des lycéens ] (French Edition) Paperback – May 18, 2017

Comment exprimer tout ce que j'ai ressenti en lisant ce bouquin?....Je n'y arrive pas. I am so proud of this young man whose family I know personally. I even lived with his family for a few months back in 1984! I bet he was too young to recall that! His father, Patrice, could corroborate that of course. He and his sister grew up with my kids in Burundi. I even taught Gaël English for a term at the Ecole Française de Bujumbura in 1994! I recall he loved to daydream in class! A rising star in music too, I am so delighted for him and wish him all the best. This is a book I shall cherish for however many decades I have left to live! Despite its tragic history, I miss so much about Burundi...

This book is extremely well written and the story is definitely engrossing. Told form a boy's perspective as he grows up it encompasses the difficult and disturbing history of the Hutu/Tutsi conflict as well as personal trials and tribulations between married persons and families . Definitely worth reading. It did take about a month to come (I ordered the French edition and didn't realize it would be coming form Belgium) but it was well worth it. There is an English translation for those who want.

A prize winning first novel by the French/Rewandan rapper Gaël Faye. Through the eyes of the child he was, the reader also becomes aware of the horrors of the Rewandan and Burundi genocides of the 1990's. A harrowing time in the history of those two countries, yet the author manages to infuse the story with an almost poetic aura.

Really enjoyed reading this novel, which helps understand so much about the genocide in Rwanda and the killings in Burundi. The early pages are full of descriptions of the country and give a good feel for what it is. The author is also a very good artist and singer. His songs are very well written.

J’ai beaucoup appréciée cette vision d’une enfance en Afrique, un continent que je n’ai jamais visité. L’écriture est superbe et l’action n’arrete jamais, la tension montant jusqu’à la fin.

A sad story of genocide and racial hatred in Burundi and Rwanda - the travails of a family with an African mother and a European father, related by a young child. Extremely well written.

Discover this author because of his music and then I saw he wrote a book. The book is in French, I am French and I really enjoy reading it

Un livre poignant, tout simplement magnifique.C’est une histoire douloureuse qui nous replonge entièrement dans les soubresauts de nos sociétés de la région des Grands-Lacs africains, et qui devraient nous servir de leçon d’histoire afin que cela nous recommence plus

A lire, absolument.Je n'ai jamais été autant bouleversée par un livre. Je viens de le terminer et j'ai alors pleuré comme une madeleine.J'avais envie d'en savoir plus sur la guerre au Burundi et au Rwanda, et j'ai été servie par ce témoignage qui va beaucoup plus loin qu'une simple narration des faits. Ce livre est débordant d'humanité et dévoile ou explique les mécanismes qui font qu'un humain puisse devenir plus sage, ou fou - parfois au point d'assassiner ses congénères pour des raisons qui n'en sont pas : Prothé, avec son sale caractère parfois mais aussi sa profonde gentillesse, en est un exemple flagrant, la mère de Gaël Faye aussi, mais il y en a bien d'autres. C'est horrible, tous ces assassinats d'innocents, ces pressions sur l'individu qui refuse de choisir un camp.Un grand merci à Gaël Faye pour sa franchise : ce livre devrait être lu par un maximum de personnes, afin de les rassurer et de leur faire comprendre à quel point nous devons nous battre pour la paix. Et puis, il contient un magnifique hommage à la lecture, tellement indispensable pour comprendre ce que nous sommes.

The book starts with a fairly peaceful setting of family life in Burundi in the 1990s. French father, Rwandan mother (Tutsi), two children - Gabriel (Gaby) and Ana. Mother and father not getting along, the children playing with friends in the little impasse near their home. A trip to Rwanda for a hasty marriage and catch up with family members and the cracks begin to show. Abused at a check point on their way to the wedding Gaby (through whose eyes the story is told) starts to realize that it matters if you're Hutu or Tutsi or even French. Then, the presidents of Rwanda and Burundi are killed when their plane is shot down and the hell of the genocide that the world gradually learnt about begins. What then happens to the family is almost too painful to read. Their world is destroyed for ever.Incredibly believable, I felt I'd just been through a war zone by the end of the book.

A very vivid, humane and moving account of a happy childhood interrupted by war. Beautifully written. It is about to be published in English. Rush and get it!

I loved this book. It is a wonderful evocation of a childhood and of the awakening of emotional and political understanding. It is absolutely crying out to be made into a film such is the cinematic quality of the story. The writing is beautiful and I am going to use it with my French class. I recommend it wholeheartedly.

Touchant, amusant, superbement ecrit. Et en meme temps ce livre m'a ouvert les yeux et vraiment fait reflechir.