The Rwandan genocide happened 17-years ago.  But as anybody involved with such a tragedy will say, the world should not be allowed to forget.  Immaculee Ilibagiza’s incredible memoir Left to Tell was published in 2006 and I’ve just now had the courage to read it.  Such books always depress me, though I recognize the incredible value of them.  And of course I’m encouraged by the grace and forgiveness that Immaculee brings to the conclusion of the book.  But it’s hard to enjoy a book that tells the tale of nearly 1 million people being murdered.

There is one particular poignant moment in the book that I want to share here.  Fleeing for their lives and searching for some way to escape the madness, Immaculee and her brother are about to part ways. She is staying near their home; he will attempt to escape the country.  Immaculee describes their parting as follows:

My brother, my soul mate, put his hands in mine, and they felt soft and light as feathers. No matter how hard I squeezed them, I couldn’t feel the weight of his palms against mine — it was like holding the hands of a disappearing soul.

She never saw her brother again.  This is a heart wrenching book of one woman’s experience, but it describes the horror of evil in ways that few contemporary books are able.  It’s a hard book to recommend.  But it tells a story we all need to hear.