Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust Paperback – Illustrated, April 7, 2014

"Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust" by Immaculée Ilibagiza is a profoundly moving and inspirational memoir that recounts the author's harrowing experiences during the Rwandan genocide. Immaculée's storytelling captures the unimaginable horrors of the genocide while also offering a message of faith, hope, and forgiveness.The narrative follows Immaculée's journey from a peaceful and loving childhood to the devastating events of the 1994 Rwandan genocide. The author's ability to convey the intense emotions and challenges she faced during those dark times is both gripping and heart-wrenching. Her survival, both physically and spiritually, becomes a testament to the resilience of the human spirit.What sets "Left to Tell" apart is Immaculée's profound spiritual transformation amidst the horrors she witnesses. The book explores how faith and prayer became essential tools for survival and healing during the darkest moments of her life. Immaculée's discovery of God's presence amid such profound suffering adds a powerful layer to the narrative.The themes of forgiveness and reconciliation are also central to the book. Immaculée's ability to forgive those who committed unspeakable atrocities demonstrates an extraordinary strength of character. Her journey towards forgiveness, despite the unimaginable pain she endured, serves as a powerful example for readers grappling with their understanding of humanity and forgiveness.The writing style is straightforward yet deeply evocative, allowing readers to connect with Immaculée's experiences on a personal level. The memoir not only serves as a historical account of the Rwandan genocide but also imparts important lessons about the human capacity for cruelty and, ultimately, the healing power of forgiveness.In conclusion, "Left to Tell" is a powerful and thought-provoking memoir that goes beyond recounting historical events. Immaculée Ilibagiza's resilience, faith, and capacity for forgiveness make this book a testament to the strength of the human spirit in the face of unimaginable adversity. It is a must-read for those seeking stories of hope and healing in the aftermath of profound tragedy.

Immaculee Ilibagiza was the only daughter of upstanding, well-educated, charitable, civic-minded and devout Catholic parents living in the Kibuye countryside of Rwanda when an apocalyptic wave of ethnic "cleansing" was unleashed by simmering socio-political forces and government encouragement/complicity in 1994. Being members of the minority Tutsi tribe, Immaculee and her wonderful parents, brothers, neighbors and friends were the targets of the majority Hutu tribespeople who sought to wipe their countrymen out to the very last. Neighbor turned against neighbor, "friend" against friend and, in 100 days' time, 1,000,000 human beings were butchered without mercy. Men, women, children and infants were hacked to death or shot (but mostly hacked to death) and rivers of blood ran red as the bodies were piled into rotting towers of gore or thrown to dogs. Genocide was taking place as the streets and towns of Rwanda were patrolled by roving packs of savage citizens armed with machetes. In a last-ditch effort at survival, Immaculee was sent by her father to hide in a neighbor's house, where she was crammed into a 4ft. X 3ft. bathroom hidden behind a wardrobe for 91 days with six other terrified women. As mobs of killers searched the house sporadically and their voices chanted regularly in the neighborhood, Immaculee clung to her father's rosary and relied upon desperate prayer to get her through unspeakable horror, discomfort, anxiety and the realization that her entire family had been "exterminated."As a personal document from one of the relatively few who survived the Rwandan genocide, Immaculee's straightforward and uncomplicated account is both profound and direct. The agony of the living nightmare that afflicted her day after unending day would have reduced many human beings to madness and, unfortunately, that was indeed the fate suffered by many "lucky enough" to have survived this dark moment in human history. There is nothing in Immaculee's story that lacks verisimilitude, particularly given the copious journalistic documentation that came far, far too late regarding this blight upon the face of modern civilization. Immaculee's faith and frequent accounts of her intense prayer are intrinsic to this book, but even though I do not believe in quite the same kind of God as Immaculee (i.e. a deity that is actively "involved" while human murderers are hacking people to pieces, a busy God picking this one to "spare" by some sort of miracle-power over HERE, while not bothering to help the screaming children over THERE -- please, no wonder we are saddled with so many atheists when such a stupid deity is being "taught") I will not in any way mock Immaculee's desperate and extraordinary faith in the face of horrors that few of us would be lucky to endure visually, much less in the flesh. Immaculee does not preach or proselytize: she testifies to her specific experience of the whole unthinkable episode. In that sense, her book is undeniably a powerful lesson in the durability of the human spirit, the ability of the human person to overcome and even triumph against incomprehensible tragedy through forgiveness and, yes, if you wish, it is also a book that may demonstrate the real power of some kind of God -- namely a God who is an abiding source of love that does NOT interfere, allowing the sun to rise on the just and the unjust, but who remains ever-present and capable of transforming ruin into redemption for those who choose love ... come life or come death. It's a powerful book, a terrifying reminder of how dangerous we become when we dehumanize our neighbors, and it is a disgusting commentary on modern human neglect. Where was the "global community" for 100 days in 1994? Where were the cries of outrage from the great Catholic Church in Rome? Surely, someone there knew what was happening in an overwhelmingly Catholic nation of Africa. Where the heck was Oprah, for that matter? Or all of the other bleeding-heart Hollywood stars who can't wait to get photo-ops opening schools and sundry in Africa because it's fashionable in certain circles these days? The important and ambitious politicians -- where were they? Not bothering with Rwanda, that's for sure. A person does come away wondering how a million people could possibly have been left alone to be sliced apart in cold blood in 1994, with hardly a peep from the glorious powers of the world. Read it, absorb it, ask questions. Never forget. I dare anyone to call me cynical for asking such questions after reading the book himself or herself. But read it you should. Read it and weep.