LoveReading Says
A microcosm for the competing powers and influential groups in Rwanda, A Sunday at the Pool in Kigali looks at those involved in one of the most tragic events of the twentieth century. It is a powerful political novel, a poignant love story and a stirring hymn to humanity. With an Introduction by Yann Martel, author of Life of Pi.
Sarah Broadhurst
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A Sunday at the Pool in Kigali Synopsis
In the middle of Kigali is a swimming pool at the Hôtel des Mille-Collines. It is a magnet for a privileged group of residents, a place where middle-class Rwandans drink with melancholy expatriates and prostitutes. But beyond the walls of the hotel exists a chaotic society in which millions live in poverty, surrounded by violence and disease. In this troubled world, Valcourt, a Canadian journalist, falls for Gentille, a beautiful Hutu waitress.
A Sunday at the Pool in Kigali is a poignant love story, a stirring hymn to humanity and a modern classic of spellbinding power, confronting the nightmare that ravaged Rwanda in the 1990s.
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Gil Courtemanche Press Reviews
'A Heart of Darkness for today Astounding - It's no surprise that this book has won so many prizes'. - Daily Mail
'Exceptional ... you must read it - or allow it to read you' - Sunday Times
'This powerful and astonishing novel is one of the most important to be set in Africa since Camus'
The Plague - Scotsman
'An intense affair, urgent and nerve-wrackingly ominous, with a surprisingly boisterous humour - Financial Times
'Corrosive, denunciatory ... and beautifully written.' - Le Devoir, Montreal
'A voice that evokes humanity in all its depth and breadth, where the executioner and victim are brother and sister, where death is a daily occurrence. A voice I implore you to listen to ... Through a felicitous mix of reportage and fiction, Courtemanche has powerfully portrayed a lucid character deeply engaged in a humanist quest.' - Le Journal de Montreal
About Gil Courtemanche
Gil Courtemanche is an author and journalist in international and third-world politics. He has written many non-fiction works and also made the award-winning documentary, The Gospel of Aids. When his first novel, Un Dimanche ala piscine a Kigali, was originally publishing in 2000 it spent more than a year on the Quebec bestseller lists and won the Prix des Libraires, the booksellers award for outstanding book of the year. He currently lives in Quebec where he works as a political columnist for Le Devoir.
Patricia Claxton is one of Canada's foremost translators, winning the Governor Genera's Award for translation on two separate occasions.
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