Small Country

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What strikes me the most in this uncommon life story is how the narration is riddled with comical collages, stunningly underlying the all too relative gap between Burundi and Western countries when it comes to their respective shortcomings. I find also found it most reminiscent of Apollinaire's poetry, so obviously betraying uncommon curiosity about what would maybe pass for many as unsignificant details. In terms of the war, I still remember it being in the news frequently during the mid-90s. I knew the basics. But I didn't know that it spilled over into Burundi, a neighbouring country. I'm not sure that I'd even heard of Burundi at that point. The author has given me a glimpse of what it might have been like, through the eyes of a child. There's only a touch of the political, but a strong focus on the family and the neighbourhood; the things that matter to a small boy. But even so, some of the images of conflict become quite graphic at times. As the story's climax approached I was willing Gabriel to follow his instincts, and to hold onto his innocence a little longer. But that's the problem with being a child, particularly during a time of war - what little agency they have is difficult to hold on to. The story is told through scenes viewed from the perspective of Gaby, we slowly understand the beauty and stability of his life and how that is slowly dismantled and it is no wonder, miles away and many years in the future, something in him yearns for that lost youth. His only real worry at that time was watching the distance and separation growing between his mother, who was from Rwanda and his French ex pat father.

The novel was very well-received upon its publication in France, selling 700,000 copies. [4] It was shortlisted for the Prix Goncourt in 2016, as well as for awards by Fémina, Médicis, Interallié, the Académie française and Renaudot. [5] In the same year, it won the prix Goncourt des lycéens, chosen by lycée students (roughly equivalent to high-school age). [6] Despite the unsettled times, they plan a visit to Rwanda for a family marriage, excitement and tension mount and while they make the event, the changing atmosphere forces them to return in haste.

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Colpisce pensare che adesso Gaël Faye sia andato a vivere in Rwanda, vicino al confine col Burundi, dove è successo quello che è successo (e in Burundi la violenza si è protratta fin verso il 2010), spinto dalla paura generata dall’episodio di Charlie Hebdo, quando ha capito che il percorso per allontanarsi dalla ferocia non è in una sola direzione perché la violenza arriva anche all’ovest.

Gabriel’s first-person narrative describes his carefree days spent with his sister; sharing mischief and stories with his band of five friends hiding out in a broken-down Volkswagen bus; and his later visits to their Greek neighbor, whose novels let him escape the limits of the cul-de-sac where they live, when his familiar world begins to close in. In juxtaposition, his interior monologue seeks to pinpoint when divisive identity politics crept up on them, where the violence came from, and how their time of innocence was ruptured. The prologue’s short dialogue between father and son, which sets the novel’s tone, identifies the key geopolitical issues with the acuity of a ten-year-old’s perception of the times’ changing winds. To Gabriel’s question: Why are the Tutsis and Hutus fighting?, his father responds, Because they don’t have the same nose. Then, ironizing on the persistence of children, the narrator recalls a classmate categorizing Cyrano de Bergerac as Tutsi, before concluding: “Le fond de l’air avait changé. Peu importe le nez qu’on avait, on pouvait le sentir” (Something in the air had changed. And you could smell it, no matter what kind of nose you had). Petit pays thus moves from the personal to national and international political tensions, with Gabriel’s parents’ breakup presaging the civil war that would tear Burundi apart and that continues to this day, with its summary trials of human-rights activists, hate propaganda, and ideological signposts that characterize genocides.La storia è bella e regala una prospettiva insolita, il genocidio del 1994 in Rwanda visto dal piccolo paese fratello, il Burundi: la separazione familiare - i personaggi - la gang dei ragazzi - come man mano cresce l’odio e la separazione. I listened to Gaël Faye's own reading mixed with a collection of his songs, while working the night shift : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XoaSk... Gaël Faye et Davide Enia, lauréats du prix du Premier roman 2016», Livres Hebdo,‎ 4 novembre 2016 ( lire en ligne, consulté le 15 décembre 2016) .

Some descriptions were very beautiful, but as you reach the second half of the book, it just gets very heart-breaking. I thought the ending was a form of redemption, but can you ever heal from war? En la date du 30 mai 2022, son album Lundi méchant est officiellement nommé disque d'or, c'est une première pour lui. The movie also suffers from historical accuracy of set decor; it is way too westernized, contradictory to how life was in africa in the 80s and early 90s. I can forgive some things but when the cast trots around dressed as if they are strolling in paris, I take an objection to that! I went to Rwanda for the first time after the genocide. It was a country of orphans and widows. Rwanda is a country that rebuilt itself thanks to women. It was women who paid the heaviest price. Often in war, men get killed, but worse happens to women. Rape was nom de guerre . Many women were infected by HIV. Gabriel’s mother represents for me the realness, the presence, of these women who survived—who were made to endure an extraordinary situation. At the beginning of the story, she is a woman who is not at all militant, not even partisan. To the contrary, she dreams of leaving, she dreams of having a life. It’s the story that catches up to her.GF: Dépaysement is less strong than exile. It’s like, you live in San Francisco, you move to New York. If you feel off about it, you say, “I am displaced.” You can be displaced in yourself at only a few kilometers away. For me, dépaysement is more a direct rapport with the environment. Exile is a much stronger internal emotion. Dépaysement is a mood. Dépaysement can be about the time it takes you to acclimate. Nicolas Gary (28 August 2016). "Le roman de Gaël Faye, Petit pays, sollicité par les éditeurs du monde entier". ActuaLitté. Grey, Tobias (29 May 2018). "A French-Rwandan Rap Star Turned Novelist From Burundi". The New York Times.

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. Il finale è straziante, la fuga in Francia di Gaby e Ana avviene senza genitori, che rimangono in Africa, i due fratelli cresceranno con una famiglia affidataria. So all in all, the story and the imagery are strong, the only thing that bothered me was that parts of the book are just over-explained which takes away from the poetic merit: When an old and a young person talk about the country, we are informed that one stands for the future and one for the past, we are informed that the whole violence is pointless and so on - all of this is of course correct, but I don't need to have it spelt out for me, on the contrary: Faye can trust in his material and his abilities, the scenes alone are much stronger without all the (unnecessary) explanations. This book is one of the best debut novels I‘ve read in years. The language is beautiful with exactly the right words. The letters Gaby writes to his French penpal and to his dead cousin are both the saddest and most perfect ones imaginable.The novel is based on Gaël Faye's own experiences growing up in Burundi during this period; the author has, however, stressed that it is not strictly autobiographical. [3] Reception [ edit ]