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Our Lady of the Nile AI simulator
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Our Lady of the Nile AI simulator
(@Our Lady of the Nile_simulator)
Our Lady of the Nile
Our Lady of the Nile (French: Notre-Dame du Nil) is a French-language novel by Rwanda-born writer Scholastique Mukasonga, originally published in 2012 by Éditions Gallimard. It is Mukasonga's fourth book and first novel. The English-language translation, published in the United States in 2014 by Archipelago Books, was done by Melanie Mauthner, a poet and writer from the United Kingdom.
The story is about life at a Catholic boarding secondary school in Nyambinombe District, Rwanda, circa 1980, prior to the Rwandan genocide of 1994.
Christine Rousseau of Le Monde wrote that "With bitter and tense writing, Our Lady of the Nile depicts a society walking inexorably towards horror." Brian P. Kelly of The New Criterion wrote that the book "is a snapshot of the social and racial conflicts that eventually led to the 1994 massacres." Madeleine LaRue of Music & Literature wrote that "The West has indeed too often dismissed suffering in Africa, but books like Our Lady of the Nile remind us why we must not be dismissive, why we must not look away."
In 2022, the novel was included on the "Big Jubilee Read" list of 70 books by Commonwealth authors, selected to celebrate the Platinum Jubilee of Elizabeth II.
The story takes place at an all-girls lycée at the top of a hill, near the source of the Nile River. Most of the students are children of prominent government officials or wealthy businessmen. The story is set during Hutu rule, and the school has a quota that limits Tutsi students to 10% of the student body (two students per class year). Each chapter focuses on a particular event or series of events in and around the school, following the perspectives of several different students in their final year of high school.
These students and their stories include:
Other characters:
Christopher Byrd of Barnes & Noble Review stated that the novel uses a context leading up to the Rwandan massacre while also maintaining "a universal texture to the resentment, envy, and opportunism that are a part of any student body." Nick DiMartino wrote in Three Percent that Mukasonga included "chuckling good humor" and was "playful" in her writing. The novel uses many Kinyarwanda words, a feature retained in the English translation; LaRue stated that many writers in post-colonial countries intersperse words of indigenous languages into texts written in European languages, which is "interrupting" the colonial language. The English version also retains usage of some French words, such as lycée, adding what LaRue describes as "another layer of 'foreignness' to the text".
Our Lady of the Nile
Our Lady of the Nile (French: Notre-Dame du Nil) is a French-language novel by Rwanda-born writer Scholastique Mukasonga, originally published in 2012 by Éditions Gallimard. It is Mukasonga's fourth book and first novel. The English-language translation, published in the United States in 2014 by Archipelago Books, was done by Melanie Mauthner, a poet and writer from the United Kingdom.
The story is about life at a Catholic boarding secondary school in Nyambinombe District, Rwanda, circa 1980, prior to the Rwandan genocide of 1994.
Christine Rousseau of Le Monde wrote that "With bitter and tense writing, Our Lady of the Nile depicts a society walking inexorably towards horror." Brian P. Kelly of The New Criterion wrote that the book "is a snapshot of the social and racial conflicts that eventually led to the 1994 massacres." Madeleine LaRue of Music & Literature wrote that "The West has indeed too often dismissed suffering in Africa, but books like Our Lady of the Nile remind us why we must not be dismissive, why we must not look away."
In 2022, the novel was included on the "Big Jubilee Read" list of 70 books by Commonwealth authors, selected to celebrate the Platinum Jubilee of Elizabeth II.
The story takes place at an all-girls lycée at the top of a hill, near the source of the Nile River. Most of the students are children of prominent government officials or wealthy businessmen. The story is set during Hutu rule, and the school has a quota that limits Tutsi students to 10% of the student body (two students per class year). Each chapter focuses on a particular event or series of events in and around the school, following the perspectives of several different students in their final year of high school.
These students and their stories include:
Other characters:
Christopher Byrd of Barnes & Noble Review stated that the novel uses a context leading up to the Rwandan massacre while also maintaining "a universal texture to the resentment, envy, and opportunism that are a part of any student body." Nick DiMartino wrote in Three Percent that Mukasonga included "chuckling good humor" and was "playful" in her writing. The novel uses many Kinyarwanda words, a feature retained in the English translation; LaRue stated that many writers in post-colonial countries intersperse words of indigenous languages into texts written in European languages, which is "interrupting" the colonial language. The English version also retains usage of some French words, such as lycée, adding what LaRue describes as "another layer of 'foreignness' to the text".