Running the Rift

This is a beautiful and heart-wrenching book. Naomi Benaron helps readers see the Rwandan genocide as it unfolded through the perspective of a boy coming of age in the thick of it. Jean Patrick Nkuba just wants to run, and running is what tethers him to this life. I was absorbed in Jean Patrick's story and that of his friends and family, all the more so as the novel built to the horrific events I knew were coming. And despite the evil perpetrated in real life and in this book, there is still hope portrayed.