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Our Lady of the Nile

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Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
Our Lady of the Nile by Scholastique Mukasonga is set in the 1970s at a fictional Belgian-run boarding school for girls in Rwanda near the Nile's source. The narrative explores the lives of the students as they deal with the influences of colonialism, ethnicity, and societal expectations. Against a backdrop of growing tensions preceding the Rwandan genocide, the storyline reveals how cultural and historical pressures shape their experiences.
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Format: Paperback / softback
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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

This novel may appeal to you if you're interested in stories that delve into cultural and social dynamics, offering a profound look at Rwandan history through the eyes of students at a boarding school. You'll be drawn into the vibrant and sometimes turbulent life at the school, which serves as a microcosm of the country's broader issues.

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Our Lady of the Nile

Introducing Scholastique Mukasonga to the UK: a major international author and her brilliant and award-winning first novel.

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

Parents send their daughters to Our Lady of the Nile to be moulded into respectable citizens, and to escape the dangers of the outside world. In the elite school run by white nuns, the young ladies learn, eat, sleep and gossip together.

Fifteen years prior to the 1994 Rwandan genocide, the girls try on their parents' preconceptions and attitudes, transforming the lycΓ©e into a microcosm of the country's mounting racial tensions and violence. In the midst of the interminable rainy season, everything unfolds behind the closed doors of the school: friendship, curiosity, fear, deceit, and persecution.

With masterful prose that is at once playful and penetrating, Mukasonga captures a society hurtling toward horror.

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781911547884

Publisher: Daunt Books

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 18 March 2021

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Daunt Books

Contributors:

  • Translated by Melanie Mauthner

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Weight: 0g

Pages: 224

About the Author

Scholastique Mukasonga was born in Rwanda in 1956. She settled in France in 1992, only two years before the brutal genocide of the Tutsi swept through Rwanda. In the aftermath, Mukasonga learned that 27 of her family members had been massacred. Her first novel, Our Lady of the Nile, won the Ahamadou Kourouma prize and the Renaudot prize. In 2012, the Oceans France O prize in 2013 and the French Voices Award in 2014. Her other books include Cockroaches, Igifu and The Barefoot Woman, which Daunt
Books Originals will publish in 2022.

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