This is such a heavy but necessary read. Short in pages but packs a huge punch. Haunting and so beautiful.

The book is told from ten year old Gabriel's POV, who lives with his French father, Rwandan mother and sister in Burundi. We are thrust into Gabriel's idyllic world with his group of expat friends enjoying a sheltered life. There world is rocked when Burundi and Rwanda is hit by a war and genocide.

Small Country is about what happens when a country goes to war, the effects of genocide and how these things ravages a family and their world. My heart broke to pieces seeing how Gabriel's family life was ripped to pieces and how it basically followed him all his adult life. Every day you turn on the TV all you can hear about is war, genocide, immigrants and people being displaced. Reading this book gave such a powerful insight on exactly what is it like and what people go through.

A necessary read.

I found it difficult to connect to the characters in this novel, and while I at first thought it might be the translation, I now wonder whether that was the author's intent. There seemed to be layers between reader and character, which only seems natural in this gripping, brutal story of a young boy living through civil war. A difficult yet powerful novel.

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Everytime I read a novel set in a country unfamiliar to me I am hoping for another "Cutting for Stone" or "Poisonwood Bible." It's a high bar and I am not surprised that this book did not get there.

This short novel is set in Rwanda and follows the lives of four boys, their families and neighbors prior to, during and much after the genocide. It's kind of a quiet and slow book, but I think that is the intent -- to show how normal and ordinary life was before and how suddenly and scarily it changed. There are several haunting scenes that will stay with me.

This is a good book --more than a 3-star, less than a 4-star, but I would NOT say that it is a must read unless you have a great interest in this topic.

Reading books of this topic I just find heartbreaking. I can’t even fathom what living a life like that would feel like.

This was a much more personal look at the tragedies in Rwanda and Burundi than I've read in the past - it was moving and easy to connect to. I would definitely recommend this to patrons who want to know more about what happened.

I got to about 25% and have decided to call it quits. I think what is bugging me the most is that instead of one cohesive story it feels more like snapshots pieced together. For whatever reason, I'm having difficulty remaining interested because of this format. This may just be one of those books that I'll have to come back to at a later time as a different reader.

As NetGalley requires a star rating, I will default to the 1 but will refrain from any star ratings on Goodreads.

This book will draw you into Gaby's neighborhood, build a picture of a place where he and his friends fritter away the days doing whatever comes to mind. It will take you along as war spills into their country causing people to take sides against each other, putting weapons in the hands of children and putting children into unthinkable situations. I can't stop thinking about it.

'Small Country' by Gael Faye with translation by Sarah Ardizzone is a coming of age story set against a civil war in a small African country.

The main character is Gabriel, and the book is framed as a memoir he is writing in his 30s now that he lives in France. It tells the story of his family in 1992 living in Burundi. His Rwandan mother escaped her own atrocities years earlier and Gabriel and his family seem to have a pretty good life at the beginning of the book.

The looming future hangs over the book, but it seems like it takes a while to start. When it does, Gabriel sees it affect those around them, including himself.

I felt a little detached from the main character. He was hard to feel empathy for, and I can't understand why. Is it because this is a story we are familiar with in more recent news? Maybe it's because Gabriel himself seems a bit detached about things. I liked the book, but not as much as I imagined I might.

I received a review copy of this ebook from Hogarth, Crown Publishing, and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this ebook.

Small Country by Gaël Faye is a short but powerful novel set in politically volatile Burandi and Rwanda. Told from the perspective of 10 year old Gaby, the son of a French father and Rwandan (Tutsi) mother. Gaby enjoys a relatively carefree childhood until multi-party constitutional elections incite military upheaval in 1993. Although translated from French, the novel retains its compelling language in this moving narrative. Thank you #NetGalley for the ARC, all opinions are my own.

While I can't actually say I "loved" this book, I felt the writing was amazing. It is an upsetting story about the civil war between Burundi and Rwanda. I am not very knowledgeable about African civil wars, but of course remember the genocide in Rwanda and the political unrest.

This novel tells the story of Gaby, an eleven year old boy, living in Burundi. His father is french and his mother is actually from Rwanda. They live a fairly privileged life with private schools and cooks and drivers. Gaby is just a boy, living life and having fun when the war breaks out. All that changes quickly when the president is assassinated and people begin being murdered all over the country, even on his small street.

".....because I was always thinking about the next day, hoping that tomorrow would be better than yesterday. Happiness is something you only see in the rear-view mirror. The next day? Look at it. Here it is. Slaughtering hope, making the horizon futile, crushing dreams. I prayed for us, Gaby, I prayed as often as I could. The more I prayed, the more God abandoned us, and the more faith I had in his strength. God makes us undergo these ordeals so we can prove to him that we don't doubt him. Its as if he's telling us that great love relies on trust. We shouldn't doubt the beauty of things, not even under a torturing sky. If you aren't surprised by the cockerel's crow or the light above the mountain ridge, if you don't believe in the goodness of your soul, then you're not striving anymore, and it's as if you were already dead. Tomorrow, the sun will rise and we shall try again."

Thank you, Net Galley for this advanced reading copy.

A powerful story of the atrocities in Africa during the 1990's told through a boy's innocent voice. An adult Gabi, living in France, reflecting on a carefree and modest childhood in Burundi, as well as his mother's memories Rwanda- turned scary. A consistently well written tale, with poetic nostalgia, and the feel of a memoir. Portraying a disturbing series of events, yet of a beautiful community and family too. Thank you NetGalley for this reader copy, all opinions are my own.

<i>Genocide is an oil slick: those who don't drown in it are polluted for life</i>

Small Country by author Gael Faye is a beautifully written but heart-breaking story about coming of age during the Rwandan genocide in the 1990s. The story is narrated by Gabriel (Gabe) starting when he is 10 years old, the son of a French father and a Rwandan mother and is divided almost evenly between life before and after genocide. In the first half of the book, Gabe and his friends live a seemingly safe middle class existence in Burundi having fun and getting into mischief just like children everywhere. Although many of them are from Rwanda or have family there, the civil war is just a distant rumour, one that does not really touch them.

Then an election brings a new leader to the country and the war doesn't seem so far away. When Gabe and his mother attend a family wedding in Rwanda, they are shocked to see how conditions have deteriorated as tensions rise between the Tutsis and the Hutus. As they leave, a relative asks them to take in family members when they can safely leave the country, a promise they can only hope to keep. But it is not long before the Civil War spills over into Burundi bringing with it the constant threat of death even in their once safe neighbourhood from roving gangs who murder in daylight seemingly with impunity while people who were close friends just short weeks ago slaughter one another, and foreign observers stand by refusing to offer any aid and evacuating only French nationals. Gabe's attempts first to grasp this new and horrible reality and to finally understand fully that his life and the lives of everyone he loves are changed forever even should they survive brings a heartwrenching poignancy to the tale.

It is this juxtaposition of 'before' exemplified by Gabe's idyllic childhood and 'after' when his innocence is so completely shattered by the realities of the genocide that make Small Country both a powerful portrait and indictment of the genocide and the foreign observers who stood by and did nothing as well as a heartbreaking reminder that no one, not even the survivors years later, ever really escapes the ravages of war.

<i>Thanks to Netgalley and Crown Publishing for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review</i>

I can understand why Small Country is already a hit in France. I love books that are both well-written but teach me about something I'm not familiar with. I knew of the Rawandan genocide but was not familiar with it's affects on Burundi. *Thanks toNetgalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review*

Story about a family in Burundi in the 1990's narrated by ten-year-old Gaby who lives a privileged life hanging with his friends, selling stolen mangoes--his only real worry was the separation of his French father and Rwandan mother...until the civil war between Burundi and Rwanda.

It was very interesting (though horribly sad) to read about a piece of history I knew nothing about. As a novel though (and maybe it was the translation) but I found it slow reading and kinda boring until the last quarter of the book. It was just way too much of the day-to-day life of a boy. Most of the characters, like the parents, are so barely touched on, I never got attached to any of them. They seemed to be just a vehicle to relate the events. The last part of the book was quite riveting, and it's an important book to read just to learn about this time.

A young boy, with a French father and Rwandan mother, comes of age in Burundi during the ethnic clashes between Hutus and Tutsi in Rwanda and Burundi in the 90’s. Gabriel lives in a French expatriate community, mostly safe and comfortable. When the civil war begins it appears he and his family will remain safe if they don’t meddle in the politics. Ultimately he finds he cannot keep himself insulated from the violence and finds the fighting encroaching on his neighborhood and his life. Faye effectively lets the reader feel the confusion and chaos from the boy’s perspective of the sudden shock and unreasonableness of an ethnic massacre. He sets the loss of innocence for one boy against the atrocities of a full scale genocide. This is a well told coming of age story amidst some of the most terrifying events in his country’s history.

BookFilter Review: French hi-hop star makes a terrific debut with his autobiographical novel "Small Country." With charm and wit, it captures the world of the impressionistic, sensitive and smart ten year old Gabriel growing up in Burundi in 1992 to a French father and a Rwandan mother. Goofing around with friends, shifting alliances as a new friend joins the gang, sensing and then seeing the fractures in the marriage of his parents, swimming, fishing, sneaking a drink...it's familiar territory given a fresh perspective by Faye's talent. Then the dark clouds appear on the horizon. Gabriel and his little sister start to notice the difference between types of people, prompted by the world around him. Is he a Tutsi? Oh, she's Hutu, they whisper to each other, not really meaning anything by it. But the adults notice and care. Indeed even their friends care, like Gabriel's best pal Gino, who becomes more and more fascinated with the guns and violence all around them. Tensions erupt into fights, dark nights are peppered with gunfire and Rwanda is gripped by turmoil and soon Burundi is as well. This slide from the monumental concerns of childhood (a trip to a pool, a stolen bike) to war and coups and even genocide happens with such tragic ease that the reader might look up and wonder who turned off all the lights. Maybe this is the one book Faye was meant to write.; one gem is plenty for anyone and we can always listen to his music. (I just downloaded an EP.) Yet with his sharp eye and gift for detail, I doubt it. -- Michael Giltz

There are two themes in Gael Faye’s book, Small Country, relatable and unimaginable.
Relateable is 10 year old Burundian native, Gaby, in the beginning bricks back memories at that age of spending days in the neighborhood with friends, getting into simple mischief and exploration of his neighborhood. He was just leaving the age of innocence and just beginning to understand life.
His only real worry at that time was watching the distance and separation growing between his mother, who was from Rwanda and his French ex pat father.
The story continues and the reader is drawn to what so few of us could ever imagine, war, genocide, murder and heartbreak at that tender age.
“A glowing, uninvited ghost is showing up at regular intervals to remind us that peace is merely a brief interlude between two wars...we didn’t know it yet, but the hour of the inferno had come, and the night was about to unleash it’s cackles of hyenas and wild dogs.”
Gaby’s unimagineable journey continues along with knowledge that his life will always be really two lives, the one before the war and the one after.
Gael Faye’s book is sad, poignant, heartbreaking at times and a reminder to so many of us of how grateful and luck we really are.
#Netgalley #SmallCountry

“Here, we’re privileged. There, we’re nobodies.” - A white expat husband tells his black Rwandan wife the stark reality of their life in Burundi as opposed to his native France in the 1990s. But the underlying message is that she needs to turn her back on the lower class Burundians and to 'know her place.' In a fight that had been brewing for years, a stark utterance causes a wife to leave her husband and children. Yet, Gaby’s father insists that the privilege of a private school, a gated house, and servants would never be possible if the family lived in France. 

A family wedding, the search for a stolen bike, a crocodile hunt, a plan to steal mangos. Gaby’s life growing up in the mostly upperclass section of the capital city of Bujumbura is comfortable, but civil war strikes both Gaby’s home country and his mother’s Rwanda at the same time. Between the conflict in the family and the fights erupting in the streets, Gaby is pulled in many directions: family, loyalty, and youth.

Faye writes a terrific narrator with an authentic and realistic voice. Gaby sees and internalizes all aspects of a life that is quickly swirling around him. The neighborhood friendships and rivalries, Gaby’s mother’s strong political ties vs his father’s attempt to stay neutral, the promise and hope of democracy in the first elections in the country in 30 years. These are all told from the perspective of a young boy who only seeks to find his own identity in the troubling times of adolescence. Is he Rwandan, is he French, is he Burundian?

Small Country is a beautiful book that is filled with perfectly drawn anecdotes that tie Gaby's young life together. It is a powerful story that tells of a world that can be raw and bleak yet full of innocence. I can see why this novel is so popular in France and can predict it will have many fans here in the US. Highly recommended.

Btw I wrote this review while streaming Faye’s music. I really like his songs too.

Thank you to NetGalley, Crown Publishing, and Gaël Faye for the advanced copy for review.

Small Country is a tale set within the country of Burundi, told from the perspective of a ten-year old boy during a time period of civil war and genocide.

"I am haunted by the idea of returning. Not a day goes by without the country calling to me. A secret sound, a scent on the breeze, a certain afternoon light, a gesture, sometimes silence is enough to stir my childhood memories."

The prologue begins with a conversation between a father and son, including a crude description of the major ethnic groups within Burundi. We're then introduced to Gabriel as an adult, writing a letter to an unknown confidant as he tries to define who exactly he is and recount his childhood memories.

Gabriel, affectionately known as Gaby to his family and friends, is born to a French Father and Rwandan mother and leads a somewhat privileged life in his expatriate neighborhood of Bujumbura. The first half of the book is fairly lighthearted, and while there are some moments of tension and conflict centered around the parents and their marriage, this part of the book focuses on the innocent adventures of a boy and his group of friends. The tone changes in the second half, however, as Burundi moves to a democratic system for the first time in its' history and political conflict arises. Gaby is quickly forced to grow up, and the author does a great job of describing the abrupt death of his innocence as he is surrounded by and witness to unspeakable horrors and tragedies. Eventually, Gaby is forced to leave the place he has always called home, and the story ends with Gaby returning to Burundi after a number of years, perhaps to finally determine who he actually is.

"I used to think I was exiled from my country. But, in retracing the steps of my past, I have understood that I was exiled from my childhood. Which seems so much crueller."

The author masterfully and vividly describes the natural beauty of Burundi, and how Gaby's life was torn apart by the senseless violence caused by the civil wars in Burundi and the neighboring country of Rwanda. I could almost pinpoint the moment in which Gaby lost the blissful ignorance that accompanies childhood, and that's a testament to the depth with which Gaël Faye tells this story. Due to the way the book is written, it's a quick read, but its' impact is great.

Special thanks to Crown Publishing Group and NetGalley! I received this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A coming-of-age tale set during the Burundian Civil War. Ten-year-old Gabriel lives in Burundi with his Rwandan mother and French father. He has a normal childhood in his beautiful homeland until the horrors of war arrive in his neighborhood. Gabriel wants to ignore all the conflict going on around him, but there comes a day where he can't hide anymore and he's presented with an impossible choice.

The book is 192 pages and has similar word density to a YA novel, so it's a quick read. The topic is inherently emotional, but the method of storytelling kept me at an emotional distance. I felt like I was viewing the story through too many filters; it's told through the limited view of a privileged child from the perspective of an adult. I was actually most emotionally attached to the minor characters (the aunt's family and Prothé). The first half reads like a memoir and the lack of tension in the meandering tale of Gaby's childhood antics almost lost my interest completely. However, the author was effective in illustrating the many sides of his homeland by showing the stark contrast between Gaby's idyllic life before the war versus the horrors that followed. The story picked up in the second half, but the distance kicked in again—one of the most brutal and unforgettable parts is simply a recollection from a character who was a bit of an enigma for me.

While I had trouble connecting to Gaby and his immediate family, there are many concepts and parts in this book that will stay with me forever:
• Privilege: Gaby discusses how war initially affected the various economic classes differently. His life was relatively normal for a long time, even as the war raged at the homes of his family's domestic staff. At one point, Gaby's Rwandan mother shows resentment towards him and his sister because of their French blood.
• There are many things that Gaby doesn't understand because he's a child: "The country was built on whispers and riddles." Eventually, the adult conflicts start creeping into his classroom and he begins to perceive things he'd missed before. The loss of innocence was heartbreaking.
• The way war and politics eventually break down all barriers and inflict themselves on everyone.
• The relationship between violence and fear & the parallels between the children's street conflicts and the war.
• Differences between leaving home by choice and being forced to flee.
• A bar where people held discussions in the protection of darkness.
• The letter in Chapter 27.

In Small Country, a man grapples with the senselessness of war and it's permanent effects. From a young age, Gaby wants nothing more than to overcome his overwhelming fear, but that seems to become an impossibility after everything he witnesses. I liked the writing, so my reservations are mostly a matter of storytelling preferences. There are many powerful scenes, but there was also an emotional gap that I couldn’t bridge.