Running the Rift

Naomi Benaron’s debut novel is inspired by her work with Rwandan refugees, and tells the story of Jean Patrick, a Tutsi boy growing up in Rwanda during the Rwandan Civil War, with a wonderful talent for running. This is soon spotted, along with his academic abilities, and Jean Patrick finds himself at a selective school, tutored by a top running coach, with the prospect of the Olympics beckoning. He goes on to university in Rwanda’s capital, where he studies science and continues his running training, winning competitions and getting closer and closer to his Olympic goal. He also falls in love with Bea, the daughter of a liberal Hutu journalist fighting vigorously against the oppression of the Tutsis. Jean Patrick hopes desperately that his country’s unrest will settle, and that things will improve for his people. But the assassination of Rwanda’s president, followed by the Rwandan Genocide, shatters any hope of Jean Patrick staying in the capital and building a happy life with Bea. Now he must run literally for his life, knowing that Bea and her family are in danger for their Tutsi sympathies, that his own family in the countryside are in still worse danger, and that his brother Roger, working for the Tutsi ‘underground’ army, is also fighting for his life. Will he get to safety – and if he does, will he ever be able to come back?
Author: Naomi Benaron

ISBN:9781851689040