NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “The plot provided by the universe was filled with starvation, war and rape. I would not—could not—live in that tale.” Clemantine Wamariya was six years old when her mother and father began to speak in whispers, when neighbors began to disappear, and when she heard the loud, ugly sounds her brother said were thunder. In 1994, she and her fifteen-year-old sister, … fifteen-year-old sister, Claire, fled the Rwandan massacre and spent the next six years migrating through seven African countries, searching for safety—perpetually hungry, imprisoned and abused, enduring and escaping refugee camps, finding unexpected kindness, witnessing inhuman cruelty. They did not know whether their parents were dead or alive.
When Clemantine was twelve, she and her sister were granted refugee status in the United States; there, in Chicago, their lives diverged. Though their bond remained unbreakable, Claire, who had for so long protected and provided for Clemantine, was a single mother struggling to make ends meet, while Clemantine was taken in by a family who raised her as their own. She seemed to live the American dream: attending private school, taking up cheerleading, and, ultimately, graduating from Yale. Yet the years of being treated as less than human, of going hungry and seeing death, could not be erased. She felt at the same time six years old and one hundred years old.
In The Girl Who Smiled Beads, Clemantine provokes us to look beyond the label of “victim” and recognize the power of the imagination to transcend even the most profound injuries and aftershocks. Devastating yet beautiful, and bracingly original, it is a powerful testament to her commitment to constructing a life on her own terms.
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Excellent memoir of a young girls experience of war and the aftermath that affects her and her family. A must read as we try to understand the world around us.
This book is haunting, provocative, tragic, hopeful, lyrical, and one hundred percent true in ways few of us will experience or truly grasp. Even the title is subtle. The author survived years of being on the run in Africa from one warring faction to another, after fleeing her home in Rwanda with her sister. Only later would the mass killings be declared a genocide. There her family had been well to do – beyond losing everything they owned, they lost each other – two sisters separated from the rest. I have read a lot of memoirs – this one will stay with me. She and her sister eventually came to the US as refugees – and there her life takes on other extremes. Her path crossed with Oprah Winfrey and Elie Wiesel in an unexpected way and today she works with the USHMM in Washington DC as a human rights activist. She has seen the worst, survived the extremes, and been blessed in many ways, though they will never compensate for the huge losses and years of hurt. And the title? It refers to a Rwandan legend that spoke to Clemantine. “The girl who smiled beads gave me a way to go through the world, to believe in my own agency and my right to make decisions for myself…”
A must read about a young survivor of the Genocide in Rwanda.
This book is not an “easy” read or for those who might see the world through rose-colored glasses. It is a memoir of a female survivor of the Rwandan genocide, a harrowing but true story of survival – emotional, physical and mental. The author’s resilience, authenticity and fierce independence are so compelling. I couldn’t put it down.
This wrenching memoir is one of my top reads of the past few years–the story of how the author fled from the Rwandan war, survived in wretched refugee camps and then came to America. Transcendent.
This was a thoughtful and truthful accounting of the senseless death and tragedy that occurred during the Rwandan war that pitted countrymen against themselves. This was probably both a painful and healing book to write.
The writer described events as well as she could remember, and she clearly went through a horrific experience. A lesson to all of us to give thought to the way we view and treat others. But I did not really enjoy reading the book, she had too much anger at everyone, with the sense that she was the only one with the right feelings. Wasn’t that one of the things that led to the genocide, the feeling of others that they were the only correct ones?
Thought provoking and interesting.
Wow! I found myself “offended for caring” a few times while reading this; however, I stuck with it because I really wanted to understand as best I could, knowing that I would never really understand. This is one woman’s story/experience of a big ugly situation that impacted millions of people, one woman’s struggle to get to her “other side,” one woman who is brutally honest from the first page to the last.
Rwanda… 1994, she is 6 years old. Refugee in 8 countries over 7 years. Finds herself in the US…
A young woman’s memoir of her experience as a refugee after surviving the Rwandan genocide. Her story is powerful and poignant, and she is resilient and reflective. Interesting, engaging and relevant for us and our times.
Difficult to imagine living such a life and trying to live a normal life with such memories. Such senseless tragedy. The feelings can be applied two people in so many parts of the world.
Well worth reading. I highly recommend it.
An interesting look into the Rwanda genocide and what life looked like for the survivors. The destroyed relationships are heartbreaking, while the new ones are even more interesting. It was hard to put down this book! If you were fascinated with Night by Elie Wiesel, this is another good read.
It was a memoir about the conflict in Rwanda. If you don’t know that much about what happened in 1994 you must read this!