Running The Rift by Naomi Banaron

Author : Naomi Benaron
Title : Running The Rift
Published : 2013

Publisher : Oneworld Publications

Genre : Historical Fiction
Pages : 400

     Jean Patrick dreams of running in the Olympics, and with grueling training, he soon beats a world qualifying time. But his chances of success are threatened by the ethnic tensions erupting all around him. When Hutu violence against Tutsis finally crescendos and his homeland Rwanda is wracked by unforgivable atrocities, Jean Patrick, a Tutsi, has no choice but to run for his life abandoning fatherland, family, and the woman he loves. Finding them again will be the race of his life. Following a decade in Rwanda's history through the eyes of one boy, Running the Rift is a wrenching tale of a people's collective trauma, of lives, lost, and loves salvaged.

     Sometimes I think that the genocide that happened in Rwanda is one of those things that the world has chosen to forget. We are only reminded of what took place through the occasional book and films which have slowly started to fade themselves. This went a long way in my decision to pick this book up. Some events should be remembered and seared into the consciousness of the people that read and watch them. It strikes me that despite all the human race has gone through we systematically repeat our worse events. So I choose to read such things to remind myself but also to realize that despite all this there are people out there striving to make a difference and remind us of such events.

     For me it felt like the book is split into two halves, The first lies firmly in Jean Patrick's life before his world went to hell. To some extent this is a slow walk along a dusty path, It allowed me to understand who he was. The things that drove him and the people he loves, the very things that make him who he is. It allowed me to see a different side of Rwanda, a vibrant country that is full of wonder and joy. Despite the loss of his father at a young age, Jean sees the best of life and with his passion for running starting to take hold he is a young man who can see a bright and beautiful future ahead of him. With this comes the joy of family and friends in what the author showed me as a warm and loving environment. There is also the sweet and tender blooming of first love as meat the girl he hopes to one day marry. all of this adds up to a beautiful and energetic picture of a place and people living for the future.    

     It is only as we enter the second half does the true horror of what this country went through start to rear it's ugly head and Jean Patrick sees his world set alight. I felt the anguish he went through as everything he had hoped for disappeared. It is a truly unpleasant thought that in the hundred days the conflict lasted eight hundred thousand and a million people died. Even worse is the fact that whilst they are to tribes they shared a common language, religion, and culture. From what I have read a lot of what took place was greatly influenced by outsiders and mostly from Europeans who seized great swathes of Africa. The author managed to convey this in such an amazing way as she delved into this genocide in a very personal way. The blind hatred that seethes from this people is sadly one the world has seen far too many times. I guess in a lot of ways I am lucky my parents brought me up to not only judge people for who they are rather than race or religion but also to see that the hate in others was a falsehood. That I had an obligation to speak out when I saw this great wrong. Maybe this is why I read books like this to keep refreshing the well and to remind myself that there is still a war going on that must be fought.

     I greatly admire the author for tackling such a tough subject. And to me, she does a great deal to educate the reader about how ordinary people in Rwanda were affected by the events that took place. Much like the title of the book the story balances on a knife-edge between beauty and horror. Once again I am surprised by how easily people become swept up by the political furor, although I guess I shouldn't be too many events of recent times are once's again showing we are headed towards darker times. And while many scenes within this book show a country trying to tear it's self apart that is not to say that this is all it is. The author delivers a light in the darkest of times, that sometimes the human soul or whatever you choose to call it can burn bright enough to make it out the other side. And while fiction the world is lucky to have a few people like Jean Patrick to show us a different path. 

     The story of a boy who wants to live a life of happiness in both his personal life and also in the purity of running had a lot to offer me. In the message, it has to give it took me on a roller coaster of emotions and it would be hard to express them all here. But much like other horrific events that have scared the very soil of the earth, we should not forget them. And for me at least Jean Patrick was an amazing way to do this he was a charter how came to life before my eyes and it is through him that I shall always remember this book and I feel he will now be forever tied to my thoughts go to that of the events that took place in the nineties in Rwanda.