Left to Tell: Discovery God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust by Immaculee Ilibagiza

genre: memoir/Christian

Immaculee grew up a cherished daughter among three brothers in a Rwandan village.  While a college student, the reality of the political situation in Rwanda hits home as those in the Hutu tribe in her country decide that her tribe, the Tutsis, must be annihilated. 

How can you even wrap your brain around that idea?

That suddenly who you are is a reason to be slaughtered?

For Immaculee and hundreds of thousands of others, this was the Rwandan reality and she was a "lucky" one, managing to survive by hiding in a tiny bathroom for WEEKS while killers marched outside her window.

It's harrowing and upsetting, of course.  It is murder and chaos and terror and here is the thing: IT WAS HER LIFE.  This woman experienced it and survived it.  And as much as I hate to read about it, I am ASTONISHED that she lived to tell about it.  I have so much respect for her faith, her resilience and her tenacity but most of all, her capacity to love and to forgive.

While the subject matter is hard, it reads easily.  It's a story I won't soon forget.