IN THE SHADOW OF 10,000 HILLS
BY JENNIFER HAUPT
What an astounding and beautiful novel. Three women, each searching, each holding on, each afraid to let go, each needing to let go, each needing to move forward.
Dearest Cricket…Here’s a bit of wisdom from your old man: It’s the search that really matters, the adventure of living your life. You can quote me on that.
Rachel has been searching. Searching for her father. He left when she was a little girl, and she wants to understand why. Did he ever think of her? Did he miss her? Why would he leave her when he seemed to love her so much? Her search takes her to Rwanda, still heavily scarred and hurting from the genocide that tore the country apart a few years prior. There she finds more than she expected, and learns that her father’s words, quoted above, tell a truth she finally accepts.
Sometimes now, she stares into the mirror, not at the silver sheen on her black hair, not at the fine lines becoming deep grooves like a roadmap of her troubles hanging onto Kwizera, but searching for the light that been in her eyes in that photo.
Lillian, who as a young woman from Atlanta inspired by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., finds her way to Rwanda and builds a life there, rescuing and loving as many children affected by the slaughter as she can. Rachel’s father Henry, a photographer, follows her there and for twenty years loves, lives, and works side-by-side with her, building their home Kwizera, until at last he leaves her, just as he left his first family.
For as long as she can remember, her family has lived with the threat of death – maybe today, maybe tomorrow – as if each day is a gift, easily snatched away.
Nadine, a young woman deeply damaged by an savage attack and by what she witnessed from those who were once considered friends but suddenly became enemies, is saved by Papa Henry, and is taken to Lillian’s to live. She tries to bury her memories of that horrible day, and only says she doesn’t remember. But the memories are there, and at some point she must decide whether to voice them in order to move on and to let her beloved country move on into reconciliation.
Three women, different but all searching, and eventually tied together with unbreakable bonds that change all of their lives. I learned so much more about the Rwandan tragedy than I had known. The author describes both the brutality and the heart of this country in lovely language, and I won’t forget this story.
Thank you to NetGalley and Central Avenue Publishing for a copy of this book in exchange for my review.
5 stars
House of Black and Blue 