GIL COURTEMANCHE A Sunday at the pool in Kigali

NOVEL OF THE YEAR. LA PRESSE

A Sunday at the pool in Kigali

GIL COURTEMANCHE

A remarkable novel of love and humanity at its limits which asks the only question that matters: how are we to live our lives?

The swimming pool at the Mille-Collines hotel in Kigali is a magnet for aid workers, Rwandan businessmen, prostitutes, soldiers and foreigners. Among them are the waitress Gentille, a beautiful Hutu often mistaken for a Tutsi, and Bernard Valcourt, a Canadian film-maker. As their tender love affair grows in intensity, the country begins to slide into the brutal chaos of civil war.

This extraordinary bestselling novel-by an acclaimed journalist who spent several years working in Africa-not only describes the reality of Rwanda during the Hutu-led genocide of the Tutsi people but puts a human face on it. With deep compassion and consummate control Gil Courtemanche navigates this contemporary holocaust with spellbinding power. A heartbreaking love story, A Sunday at the Pool in Kigali is also a hymn to humanity that will move and challenge all who read it.

WINNER OF THE PRIX DES LIBRAIRES DU QUÉBEC

'A blunt, vividly visual account of a human cataclysm that has left a scar

on the psyche of us all. At the same time it is a testament to love, its

durability and frailty in the face of annihilation. Do not expect it to leave you untouched.' Jonathan Kaplan, author of The Dressing Station

'Captivating...A love story full of beauty and tenderness.' Voir

'Corrosive, denunciatory...and beautifully written.' Le Devoir