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Rwanda

The covers of the books featured in the list

The Best Books of 2022—And What We’re Looking Forward to in 2023

By Words Without Borders

Our staff, contributors, and board members share their favorite translated books of the year and the titles they’re looking forward to in 2023.

At left face of French language translator Mark Polizzotti and at right face of French Rwandan...

The National Book Award Interviews: Scholastique Mukasonga & Mark Polizzotti

By Words Without Borders

“One thing that makes ‘Kibogo’ such a compelling work is the critical distance it maintains from all the power structures it describes.”

A cobblestone street in Rwanda at sunset with a few pedestrians and motorcycle riders

Photo by Michael Muli on Unsplash

No Familiar Faces

By Beata Umubyeyi Mairesse

I had the look of a Westerner fresh off the boat, with my wrinkled trousers, tourist backpack, and it didn’t tally with my fluency in Kinyarwanda.

Translated from French by Alison Anderson

Recalculating the Hexagon: The New French Literature

By Susan Harris

These writers have migrated geographically and, in some cases, linguistically.

Motherhoods

By Beata Umubyeyi Mairesse

My son now despises me.

Translated from French by Edward Gauvin

“It’s Us and Them”: Writing from and about Divided Countries

By Susan Harris

In the current environment of relentless political strife . . . debate deteriorates into name-calling; partisans morph into zealots, complex issues are reduced to binary terms, and hostility seethes just beneath the surface.

from Abadaringi

By Jeroen Janssen

Those are things you mustn't ask questions about. Some people get sad.

Translated from Dutch by Michele Hutchison

Graphic Novels at WWB: The First Ten Years

By Susan Harris

The narrative threads that weave through the last ten years tell a tale in themselves.

A Whim of the Gods

By Hippolyte & Patrick de Saint-Exupéry

Dump trucks from the Department of Public Safety came for the bodies.

Translated by Edward Gauvin

White flowers on a eucalyptus branch against a background of dappled light

Photo by Melissa Brown on Unsplash

Cyarwa cya nyarwaya

By Michaella Rugwizangoga

Your stories flow in the blood of my dear ones

Translated from French by Elizabeth Applegate

Identity

By Michaella Rugwizangoga

Rwanda, today, lets me tread on its soil.

Translated from French by Elizabeth Applegate

From “A Butterfly in the Hills”

By Koulsy Lamko

Before the chaos came, the whole world knew me.

Translated from French by Arthur Greenspan

A Coward’s Repentance

By Esther Mujawayo & Souâd Belhaddad

Genocide works because, inside of you, genocide never ends.

Translated from French by Elizabeth Applegate

Writing Genocide: Poetry and Prose from Rwanda

By Elizabeth Applegate

There is no single story of the Tutsi genocide in Rwanda.