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In The Shadow of 10,000 Hills
Follow the intertwining stories of three women from diverse backgrounds, all searching for family and personal peace in post-genocide Rwanda. At the heart of this inspiring novel that bestselling author Wally Lamb calls "an evocative page-turner" and Caroline Leavitt calls "blazingly original" is the discovery of grace when there can be no forgiveness.
In 1968, Lillian Carlson left Atlanta, disillusioned and heartbroken, after the assassination of Martin Luther King. She found meaning in the hearts of orphaned African children and cobbled together her own small orphanage in the Rift Valley alongside the lush forests of Rwanda.
Three decades later, in New York, Rachel Shepherd, lost and heartbroken herself, embarks on a journey to find the father who abandoned her as a young child, determined to solve the enigma of Henry Shepherd, a now-famous photographer.
When an online search turns up a clue to his whereabouts, Rachel travels to Rwanda to connect with an unsuspecting and uncooperative Lillian. While Rachel tries to unravel the mystery of her father's disappearance, she finds unexpected allies in an ex-pat doctor running from his past and a young Tutsi woman who lived through a profound experience alongside her father.
In 1968, Lillian Carlson left Atlanta, disillusioned and heartbroken, after the assassination of Martin Luther King. She found meaning in the hearts of orphaned African children and cobbled together her own small orphanage in the Rift Valley alongside the lush forests of Rwanda.
Three decades later, in New York, Rachel Shepherd, lost and heartbroken herself, embarks on a journey to find the father who abandoned her as a young child, determined to solve the enigma of Henry Shepherd, a now-famous photographer.
When an online search turns up a clue to his whereabouts, Rachel travels to Rwanda to connect with an unsuspecting and uncooperative Lillian. While Rachel tries to unravel the mystery of her father's disappearance, she finds unexpected allies in an ex-pat doctor running from his past and a young Tutsi woman who lived through a profound experience alongside her father.
384 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 2018
About the author
Jennifer Haupt
10 books201 followersJennifer Haupt's debut novel, In the Shadow of 10,000 Hills, was awarded the Foreword Reviews Bronze Indie Award for Historical Fiction. She is also the editor of ALONE TOGETHER: Stories of Love, Grief, and Comfort in the Time of COVID-19, which received the 2021 Washington State Book Award. Come as You Are, a contemporary family drama, will be published in March 2022.
Haupt's essays and articles have been published in O, The Oprah Magazine, Parenting, The Rumpus, Spirituality & Health, The Sun and many other publications. She lives in Seattle with her husband, two sons, and double-doodle Sasha Fierce.
Haupt's essays and articles have been published in O, The Oprah Magazine, Parenting, The Rumpus, Spirituality & Health, The Sun and many other publications. She lives in Seattle with her husband, two sons, and double-doodle Sasha Fierce.
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July 6, 2019
”After her family was murdered, she didn’t speak for a month Maman tells her, although it felt longer. She stayed in her bedroom, listening to the rustle of the pines in the forest that seemed to cry for her; the fear had drained her of tears. Most of the people in her village were dead. It was being alive, not the deaths, that was somehow shocking. Her existence seemed to be an accident of fate, her life spent waiting in this room in Lillian’s home, this room that was not hers. She was paralyzed, for the inevitable correction.”
The inevitable correction, when the universe finally realizes that she is still alive. It doesn’t have to be a boy with a machete and a wild look in his eyes. It could be a Biblical bolt of lightning from the sky, or maybe she just falls down dead as if her life string has been plucked.
It is hard to live when being alive feels like an offense against the natural order. When being alive feels like a mistake, as if the angel of death just missed scooping her off the earth by a fraction of inches. The swoop of the scythe makes a sound of displaced air as it...misses her.
Nobody escapes this life without losses, but for most of us it is a slow trickle spaced out over decades, so the burden grows, and we can adjust to the weight even though we feel whittled down, weaker, exposed, moved up in line to be the next one to be taken. We are the only species on Earth who knows, without a shadow of a doubt, that we will die. As children we are barely aware of that inevitability, but as we age that awareness grows steadily to the point that we have to even start preparing for it.
For Nadine, a lifetime of loss is crunched into two minutes of madness.
During the Rwandan genocide, a million people, most of them of the Tutsi tribe, were massacred in a matter of a 100 days. 10,000 people a day. Rape has always been an unfortunate part of war, but in the Rwandan genocide it was used as an act of war. It was an insidious tactic to instill fear and make sure that even the survivors were left forever scarred.
This story is not about the genocide, but about the ability of people to grieve and find the scattered pieces of themselves so that they can forge a path to a new life. It is the story of three women. I’ve already introduced you to Nadine. Let me give you an idea of the woman Lillian Carlson. She is an activist in the United States. When Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated, she is disillusioned with her ability to make a difference. She finds that she can make a difference in the lives of orphans in Rwanda. She takes in as many as she can and even more than she should have, but when children have no one she chooses to be their someone.
The third woman is Rachel Shepherd, who is searching for her father. He disappeared when she was a child. With some amateur sleuthing and the benefit of the internet, she traces him to Kwizera, the place of hope built by Lillian in Rwanda. Henry ties these three women together. He knew Lillian in Atlanta and never forgot her. He is the perfect father for Rachel, attentive, fun, and always as interested in her as he is interesting for her. He proves to be the same great substitute father for Nadine when he comes to Rwanda to find Lillian again.
He proves to be an enigma for all three women. He is amazing, and then he just disappears. He is a famous photographer, and maybe, just maybe, he sees things too clearly through the aperture of his camera.
How about this for a snapshot of Kwizera? ”The backyard, if you can call it that, is more of the same, a slash of red dirt and scrubby bushes with some kind of irrigation ditch tricking down the center like a tear. But it’s not totally hopeless. There’s a tall stack of lumber to one side, a rusty green tractor that may or may not work, and an assortment of shovels and rakes splayed on the ground. Two monkeys sit atop the tractor, examining a purple gardening glove. One flicks his tongue at it like a child might test the flavor of a lollipop.”
To some, all they see is desolation in that scene, but for me, all I see is a chance to make paradise.
Jennifer Haupt spent a month in Rwanda interviewing victims of the genocide. She was there as a journalist, but came home with a story that she felt compelled to tell. It is a novel, but like many novels nothing in this book is untrue. We must tell the stories to try to keep the dangerous fallacies of the past from becoming the future. I came away from this book thinking about how life continues after tragedy. I thought about how important it is for survivors to continue to live for those who perished. I thought about how hard it is to find a path when the universe feels so arbitrarily brutal. This book is about finding a place beyond grief and about gathering those around you who need you as much you need them and discovering together a path that will raise you all up together.
I want to thank Jennifer Haupt and Central Avenue Publishing for sending me an advance reading copy in exchange for an honest review.
If you wish to see more of my most recent book and movie reviews, visit http://www.jeffreykeeten.com
I also have a Facebook blogger page at: https://www.facebook.com/JeffreyKeeten
The inevitable correction, when the universe finally realizes that she is still alive. It doesn’t have to be a boy with a machete and a wild look in his eyes. It could be a Biblical bolt of lightning from the sky, or maybe she just falls down dead as if her life string has been plucked.
It is hard to live when being alive feels like an offense against the natural order. When being alive feels like a mistake, as if the angel of death just missed scooping her off the earth by a fraction of inches. The swoop of the scythe makes a sound of displaced air as it...misses her.
Nobody escapes this life without losses, but for most of us it is a slow trickle spaced out over decades, so the burden grows, and we can adjust to the weight even though we feel whittled down, weaker, exposed, moved up in line to be the next one to be taken. We are the only species on Earth who knows, without a shadow of a doubt, that we will die. As children we are barely aware of that inevitability, but as we age that awareness grows steadily to the point that we have to even start preparing for it.
For Nadine, a lifetime of loss is crunched into two minutes of madness.
During the Rwandan genocide, a million people, most of them of the Tutsi tribe, were massacred in a matter of a 100 days. 10,000 people a day. Rape has always been an unfortunate part of war, but in the Rwandan genocide it was used as an act of war. It was an insidious tactic to instill fear and make sure that even the survivors were left forever scarred.
This story is not about the genocide, but about the ability of people to grieve and find the scattered pieces of themselves so that they can forge a path to a new life. It is the story of three women. I’ve already introduced you to Nadine. Let me give you an idea of the woman Lillian Carlson. She is an activist in the United States. When Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated, she is disillusioned with her ability to make a difference. She finds that she can make a difference in the lives of orphans in Rwanda. She takes in as many as she can and even more than she should have, but when children have no one she chooses to be their someone.
The third woman is Rachel Shepherd, who is searching for her father. He disappeared when she was a child. With some amateur sleuthing and the benefit of the internet, she traces him to Kwizera, the place of hope built by Lillian in Rwanda. Henry ties these three women together. He knew Lillian in Atlanta and never forgot her. He is the perfect father for Rachel, attentive, fun, and always as interested in her as he is interesting for her. He proves to be the same great substitute father for Nadine when he comes to Rwanda to find Lillian again.
He proves to be an enigma for all three women. He is amazing, and then he just disappears. He is a famous photographer, and maybe, just maybe, he sees things too clearly through the aperture of his camera.
How about this for a snapshot of Kwizera? ”The backyard, if you can call it that, is more of the same, a slash of red dirt and scrubby bushes with some kind of irrigation ditch tricking down the center like a tear. But it’s not totally hopeless. There’s a tall stack of lumber to one side, a rusty green tractor that may or may not work, and an assortment of shovels and rakes splayed on the ground. Two monkeys sit atop the tractor, examining a purple gardening glove. One flicks his tongue at it like a child might test the flavor of a lollipop.”
To some, all they see is desolation in that scene, but for me, all I see is a chance to make paradise.
Jennifer Haupt spent a month in Rwanda interviewing victims of the genocide. She was there as a journalist, but came home with a story that she felt compelled to tell. It is a novel, but like many novels nothing in this book is untrue. We must tell the stories to try to keep the dangerous fallacies of the past from becoming the future. I came away from this book thinking about how life continues after tragedy. I thought about how important it is for survivors to continue to live for those who perished. I thought about how hard it is to find a path when the universe feels so arbitrarily brutal. This book is about finding a place beyond grief and about gathering those around you who need you as much you need them and discovering together a path that will raise you all up together.
I want to thank Jennifer Haupt and Central Avenue Publishing for sending me an advance reading copy in exchange for an honest review.
If you wish to see more of my most recent book and movie reviews, visit http://www.jeffreykeeten.com
I also have a Facebook blogger page at: https://www.facebook.com/JeffreyKeeten
August 10, 2018
UNBELIEVABLE... UPDATE: Kindle daily special is selling this book for only $.99 today!!! Unreal!!!!! Highly recommend it!
Definitely a bargain!!! Much to enjoy!!!!
Lillian knew what her life was about. She felt a personal responsibility to do her part in changing the world. She wanted to use her gift of her education to teach children.
Her clarity of purpose took her too Rwanda. By the time we meet her - she’s been living in Rwanda for 30 years. She is no longer teaching in a school - she takes malnourished orphan kids into her home....on her farm.
Lillian raised and educated 48 orphans....still taking more. Many of these kids - or infants - saw their mother’s get slaughtered. Lillian said Genocide was far too polite. We don’t enjoy reading that line - but she’s damn right.
Lillian not only makes the children super-power cookies packed with protein - but as her friend Henry Shepherd once said about her.....”Lillian’s enthusiasm was as good as a blood transfusion that pumped energy into his dull existence”. That’s just the type of woman that Lillian was - with ‘everyone’. Her kids blossom - got healthy - got stronger - felt better about themselves because of Lillian.
Tucker - African American- was also living in Rwanda (Daniel Tucker) - He left UCLA nine years earlier......disappointing his father by not following in his footsteps to become a doctor.
“He could have been another young backpacker in need of a shower, stopping in Mubarak’s to get water before heading into the Virginia Mountains to track gorillas. But there was that squirming bundle he held to his chest, wrapped in a dirty pink blanket. And then, there were his meticulously squared nails rimmed with dirt-crusted cuticles: the hands of a surgeon in a war zone”.
Tucker worked hard on Lillian’s farm - building a three-room clinic where parents could from Mubaro could bring their children for free vaccinations or get a limb set.
Then - most evenings Tucker slept in a tent at the edge of the forest instead of his room in the farmhouse.
Tucker brought kids to Lillian....and stayed with her on and off. He medically cared for the orphans as well as families who live in the mountain villages between Mubaro and Uganda border.
One of the kids that Lillian raised - Nadine - went off to the University of Nairobi. Nadine loves to sing and learn more about music. There is much more you'll learn about Nadine!!!! Her story is gripping.
Rachel - had recently lost her mother, Marilee, and had a miscarriage.....(a child she named Serena and talked to daily). Rachel’s grief for the loss of her child - and her mother was putting a strain on her marriage with Mick.
Mick had his own grief- even guilt. He was at work when Rachel needed to be rushed to the hospital.
But something else was pulling at Rachel - obsessively- even understandably- given the timing of her losses- she wanted to try to resolve the mystery about her father, Henry. She had not seen him since she was 8 years of age. When she was cleaning out her mother’s things, after her death, she found a photo of a woman whose name is Lillian Carlson.
NOTE:
You’ll have to read the story to —— haha....TO GET THE STORY!!! - page turning intimate storytelling, by author Jennifer Haupt.
However, getting from step A to Z.....
Rachel stepped off the plane in Kigali... the capital and largest city of Rwanda. Tucker had his green Jeep. He met Rachel at the airport—-they played twenty questions on their drive to meet Lillian. I laughed —- trying to keep up with them: I couldn’t......BECAUSE...sometimes when you’re reading a novel, enjoying the dialogue between two people....you stop and realize WHERE YOU ARE .....
All of a sudden I had this elated feeling.....as if I were driving along in that green Jeep —a country I had never been in where the landscape was changing all around me.
Right when that feeling hit me, that same feeling hit our leading character, Rachel. She started to notice the shades of the clouds. She was taking in the scenery of the banana trees and clusters of flowers. She saw women and children wrapped in swaths of colorful fabrics. She saw some women with babies swaddled to their backs. ..... and then Rachel thought of her father because he was a photographer and she was imagining him taking photographs. THIS WAS A HAPPY MOMENT....
There are HORRIFIC MOMENTS ALSO.....
If you’re like me ... you’ll cry in one or two or three places.
For the rest of this story .... the meat of what happens.... I HIGHLY RECOMMEND READING IT YOURSELF.
......This novel was inspired by - in honor of — the genocide in Rwanda during the mid 1990’s.....at a time when we should have already learned that race, religion and culture didn’t matter.
It’s a powerful story….beautifully written… and it convincingly captures the experience that the leading characters each go through......ultimately experiencing love, courage, grief, sadness, shock, hope, injustice, justice , peace, and forgiveness.
Thank You Netgalley, Central Avenue Publishing, and the very talented author Jennifer Haupt
Definitely a bargain!!! Much to enjoy!!!!
Lillian knew what her life was about. She felt a personal responsibility to do her part in changing the world. She wanted to use her gift of her education to teach children.
Her clarity of purpose took her too Rwanda. By the time we meet her - she’s been living in Rwanda for 30 years. She is no longer teaching in a school - she takes malnourished orphan kids into her home....on her farm.
Lillian raised and educated 48 orphans....still taking more. Many of these kids - or infants - saw their mother’s get slaughtered. Lillian said Genocide was far too polite. We don’t enjoy reading that line - but she’s damn right.
Lillian not only makes the children super-power cookies packed with protein - but as her friend Henry Shepherd once said about her.....”Lillian’s enthusiasm was as good as a blood transfusion that pumped energy into his dull existence”. That’s just the type of woman that Lillian was - with ‘everyone’. Her kids blossom - got healthy - got stronger - felt better about themselves because of Lillian.
Tucker - African American- was also living in Rwanda (Daniel Tucker) - He left UCLA nine years earlier......disappointing his father by not following in his footsteps to become a doctor.
“He could have been another young backpacker in need of a shower, stopping in Mubarak’s to get water before heading into the Virginia Mountains to track gorillas. But there was that squirming bundle he held to his chest, wrapped in a dirty pink blanket. And then, there were his meticulously squared nails rimmed with dirt-crusted cuticles: the hands of a surgeon in a war zone”.
Tucker worked hard on Lillian’s farm - building a three-room clinic where parents could from Mubaro could bring their children for free vaccinations or get a limb set.
Then - most evenings Tucker slept in a tent at the edge of the forest instead of his room in the farmhouse.
Tucker brought kids to Lillian....and stayed with her on and off. He medically cared for the orphans as well as families who live in the mountain villages between Mubaro and Uganda border.
One of the kids that Lillian raised - Nadine - went off to the University of Nairobi. Nadine loves to sing and learn more about music. There is much more you'll learn about Nadine!!!! Her story is gripping.
Rachel - had recently lost her mother, Marilee, and had a miscarriage.....(a child she named Serena and talked to daily). Rachel’s grief for the loss of her child - and her mother was putting a strain on her marriage with Mick.
Mick had his own grief- even guilt. He was at work when Rachel needed to be rushed to the hospital.
But something else was pulling at Rachel - obsessively- even understandably- given the timing of her losses- she wanted to try to resolve the mystery about her father, Henry. She had not seen him since she was 8 years of age. When she was cleaning out her mother’s things, after her death, she found a photo of a woman whose name is Lillian Carlson.
NOTE:
You’ll have to read the story to —— haha....TO GET THE STORY!!! - page turning intimate storytelling, by author Jennifer Haupt.
However, getting from step A to Z.....
Rachel stepped off the plane in Kigali... the capital and largest city of Rwanda. Tucker had his green Jeep. He met Rachel at the airport—-they played twenty questions on their drive to meet Lillian. I laughed —- trying to keep up with them: I couldn’t......BECAUSE...sometimes when you’re reading a novel, enjoying the dialogue between two people....you stop and realize WHERE YOU ARE .....
All of a sudden I had this elated feeling.....as if I were driving along in that green Jeep —a country I had never been in where the landscape was changing all around me.
Right when that feeling hit me, that same feeling hit our leading character, Rachel. She started to notice the shades of the clouds. She was taking in the scenery of the banana trees and clusters of flowers. She saw women and children wrapped in swaths of colorful fabrics. She saw some women with babies swaddled to their backs. ..... and then Rachel thought of her father because he was a photographer and she was imagining him taking photographs. THIS WAS A HAPPY MOMENT....
There are HORRIFIC MOMENTS ALSO.....
If you’re like me ... you’ll cry in one or two or three places.
For the rest of this story .... the meat of what happens.... I HIGHLY RECOMMEND READING IT YOURSELF.
......This novel was inspired by - in honor of — the genocide in Rwanda during the mid 1990’s.....at a time when we should have already learned that race, religion and culture didn’t matter.
It’s a powerful story….beautifully written… and it convincingly captures the experience that the leading characters each go through......ultimately experiencing love, courage, grief, sadness, shock, hope, injustice, justice , peace, and forgiveness.
Thank You Netgalley, Central Avenue Publishing, and the very talented author Jennifer Haupt
March 25, 2018
I remember when I saw the film, Hotel Rwanda . I was horrified and ashamed that I had paid so little attention to what happened in Rwanda in 1994. I wondered why the world had done so little to stop this genocide with over 800,000 people murdered. While this novel is about the horrors of the genocide, it’s also about how deep sorrow and inexplicable loss give people the strength and power to move forward and take care of each other, to find peace - amahoro . Jennifer Haupt in a brief introduction to her novel in her own review reflects on this : “I began writing this story, without knowing it, while visiting Rwanda in December 2006, as a journalist, interviewing survivors of the genocide 12 years earlier and humanitarian aid workers drawn to this still-grieving country. During that month, I discovered the stories of amahoro that would serve as the bones of a novel, including my own longing for a kind of peace that I had been searching for as long as I could remember but never knew how to name.” https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
In Rwanda in 1994, in the midst of the genocide, a young girl named Nadine suffers inexplicable brutality, loses her family, yet she survives. In New York City in 2000, a woman named Rachel is grieving her own personal losses. She thinks about her father who left many years before begins again to wonder where he is now, why he never came back. In Rwanda in 2000, Lillian a woman who has been there 30 years, cares for orphans, including Nadine, who is now a college student. An activist in the Civil Rights Movement, she was broken after the assassination of Martin Luther King and a relationship that seemed impossible. These three women have something in common - they all love Henry Shepherd and he has abandoned all of them . He’s Rachel’s father and left when she was a child. He is the love of Lillian’s life, but was not always there when she needed him. He saved Nadine’s life and was like a father to her when her parents were killed but is no where to be found when she needs him now. Through the eyes of these women I came to know some things about Henry which made me wonder about this man, the photographer, the father . Is he a good man or a selfish man concerned for his own sense of adventure? It is through the stories of these women that we discover the man. While the story centers on this, my favorite character was Tucker, the young doctor who first came to Rwanda as a Red Cross worker. He has chosen to remain because this life is much more meaningful to him than the comfortable life he led in California and because he too has been affected by losses during the genocide. He stays mostly because of a little girl named Rose.
The narrative moves around in time and between places so I had to pay attention to the chapter headings which indicated the year and place. While that felt a little disjointed at first, the rhythm of the story eventually blended well the past and present. The difficult chapters were those in 1994 Rwanda when the brutal killings are described vividly. These are offset by beautiful descriptions of the landscape and by the parts of the narrative that do not take place in 1994. I can’t do anything except highly recommend this book. I found it to be so many things - beautifully written, stunningly enlightening and informative of the horrors, more than heartbreaking in its depiction of the depth of grief that haunts these characters, and amazingly uplifting when it didn’t seem possible.
I received an advanced copy of this book from Central Avenue Publishing through NetGalley.
October 11, 2020
4.5 Stars
"Here's a bit of wisdom from your old man: It's the search that really matters, the adventure of living your life."
Rachel Shepherd has been thinking about her father who abandoned her as a small child. Her Mother has recently passed away and Rachel is dealing with loss and heartbreak. She yearns to connect to her father and learn why he left her all those years ago. She would also like to find him in hopes of reconnecting with him. When Rachel finds a link to her father online, she begins to send emails to Lillian Carlson, whom her father photographed years ago. She hopes that Lilian will answer her emails and provide her with some insight.
Lilian was a teenager when she was photographed by Rachel's father Henry. She and Henry shared a romance before he left her, and she moved on with her life, finding love and loss along the way. Lilian decided to leave Atlanta in 1968 after the assassination of Martin Luther King. She still wants to change the world and decides she will do so by moving to Africa and helping orphans in Rwanda. There she eventually resumes her relationship with Henry Shepherd and they live in happiness until once again he leaves.
Believing she has been invited to Rwanda, Rachel makes the journey only to learn that Lilian is not expecting her and is somewhat uncooperative to talk to her in detail about her father. Learning that her father has disappeared again, Rachel goes on a quest to find answers, but comes up with more questions.
Rachel and Lilian are not the only characters in this book dealing with loss. Tucker has lost a woman he loves and the support of his family. Nadine, in two minutes time, has lost everything. The effects of the Rwandan genocide are shown in this book. Violence, mutilation, rape, are shown and how survivors such as Nadine are scarred for life but still find a way to keep living.
"It is not so easy to judge the ones you love."
Rachel, Lilian and Nadine are all tied to Henry Shepherd, who has become a famous photographer and, in the process, become tied to each other. In one way or another he has left all three of these women but for different reasons. Through him, or perhaps because of him, the women slowly form a bond and begin to open up to each other and each gets answers. Will the answers be the ones they are looking for?
This is a powerful and moving book about love, loss, grief, abandonment, starting over, finding your true calling, the effects of violence, fear, vengeance, secrets, and what makes a family. This book goes back and forth through time from the 1960's Civil Rights movement in Atlanta to the Rwandan Genocide in the 1990's. Lilian and Henry are the characters who experienced both events, but their experiences have shaped not only their lives, but their relationships, and their careers. How does experiencing violence shape one's life? How does abandonment? How does love?
This book is extremely well written, and the descriptions are detailed. I imagine this book will be very popular with book clubs and for good reason. There is a lot to talk about here! This is not a page turner in the edge-of-your-seat-suspense sense but in the I-want-to-know-what-happened-sense. I enjoyed how nothing felt rushed or drawn out in this book. I felt the pacing was spot on and the characters and the readers gain insight and answers at the right spots in the story. I especially enjoyed how the "secrets" or "reveal" are shown naturally though the story. What really happened that fateful night? Where has Henry gone and why? Will Rachel ever learn the truth? What secrets does Lilian hold? Will the characters find amarhoro (peace) upon learning the truth?
I love when a book can evoke emotion, educate and captivate me all at the same time. This book did all three! I highly recommend!
Thank you to Jennifer Haupt, Central Avenue Publishing and NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
See more of my reviews at www.openbookposts.com
"Here's a bit of wisdom from your old man: It's the search that really matters, the adventure of living your life."
Rachel Shepherd has been thinking about her father who abandoned her as a small child. Her Mother has recently passed away and Rachel is dealing with loss and heartbreak. She yearns to connect to her father and learn why he left her all those years ago. She would also like to find him in hopes of reconnecting with him. When Rachel finds a link to her father online, she begins to send emails to Lillian Carlson, whom her father photographed years ago. She hopes that Lilian will answer her emails and provide her with some insight.
Lilian was a teenager when she was photographed by Rachel's father Henry. She and Henry shared a romance before he left her, and she moved on with her life, finding love and loss along the way. Lilian decided to leave Atlanta in 1968 after the assassination of Martin Luther King. She still wants to change the world and decides she will do so by moving to Africa and helping orphans in Rwanda. There she eventually resumes her relationship with Henry Shepherd and they live in happiness until once again he leaves.
Believing she has been invited to Rwanda, Rachel makes the journey only to learn that Lilian is not expecting her and is somewhat uncooperative to talk to her in detail about her father. Learning that her father has disappeared again, Rachel goes on a quest to find answers, but comes up with more questions.
Rachel and Lilian are not the only characters in this book dealing with loss. Tucker has lost a woman he loves and the support of his family. Nadine, in two minutes time, has lost everything. The effects of the Rwandan genocide are shown in this book. Violence, mutilation, rape, are shown and how survivors such as Nadine are scarred for life but still find a way to keep living.
"It is not so easy to judge the ones you love."
Rachel, Lilian and Nadine are all tied to Henry Shepherd, who has become a famous photographer and, in the process, become tied to each other. In one way or another he has left all three of these women but for different reasons. Through him, or perhaps because of him, the women slowly form a bond and begin to open up to each other and each gets answers. Will the answers be the ones they are looking for?
This is a powerful and moving book about love, loss, grief, abandonment, starting over, finding your true calling, the effects of violence, fear, vengeance, secrets, and what makes a family. This book goes back and forth through time from the 1960's Civil Rights movement in Atlanta to the Rwandan Genocide in the 1990's. Lilian and Henry are the characters who experienced both events, but their experiences have shaped not only their lives, but their relationships, and their careers. How does experiencing violence shape one's life? How does abandonment? How does love?
This book is extremely well written, and the descriptions are detailed. I imagine this book will be very popular with book clubs and for good reason. There is a lot to talk about here! This is not a page turner in the edge-of-your-seat-suspense sense but in the I-want-to-know-what-happened-sense. I enjoyed how nothing felt rushed or drawn out in this book. I felt the pacing was spot on and the characters and the readers gain insight and answers at the right spots in the story. I especially enjoyed how the "secrets" or "reveal" are shown naturally though the story. What really happened that fateful night? Where has Henry gone and why? Will Rachel ever learn the truth? What secrets does Lilian hold? Will the characters find amarhoro (peace) upon learning the truth?
I love when a book can evoke emotion, educate and captivate me all at the same time. This book did all three! I highly recommend!
Thank you to Jennifer Haupt, Central Avenue Publishing and NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
See more of my reviews at www.openbookposts.com
May 29, 2018
I am always fascinated by stories that take me to lands so far from my reality - especially in areas that have history, and even here in Rwanda where tragedy and atrocities took place not so long ago.
Rachel in her quest to heal her own hurting heart, searches for her own history and her father in the land of Rwanda. What she discovers is a raw account of what it means to be a survivor. Of neighbours, once friends, turned into demons of war; of the ghosts past that continue to haunt the present and the future.
My heart bleeds for the peace that existed before the hatred; for the people who are left trying to regain it: reconciliation and forgiveness. For the loss of life that left those living in mourning. Of grief. Of healing. And a hope for tomorrow that life is recognized for what it is: sacred. 5⭐️
Rachel in her quest to heal her own hurting heart, searches for her own history and her father in the land of Rwanda. What she discovers is a raw account of what it means to be a survivor. Of neighbours, once friends, turned into demons of war; of the ghosts past that continue to haunt the present and the future.
My heart bleeds for the peace that existed before the hatred; for the people who are left trying to regain it: reconciliation and forgiveness. For the loss of life that left those living in mourning. Of grief. Of healing. And a hope for tomorrow that life is recognized for what it is: sacred. 5⭐️
April 4, 2018
10,000 stars to In the Shadow of 10,000 Hills! 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟
I’m pretty lucky in my reading life. I enjoy the vast majority of books I read, including many, many that I love. So when I read a stand-out, something mesmerizing and completely memorable, like this book, I want to shout from the hilltops (rooftops simply aren’t tall enough, and I can never resist a pun!) - READ THIS BOOK. Here’s why.
Lovable characters. So many of my book friends thrive on lovable characters. In the Shadow of 10,000 Hills has complex, endearing, beloved main and secondary characters.
Rachel is pregnant when the reader meets her. Her mother has recently passed away from cancer, and she’s been estranged from her father for years.
Lillian is a human rights’ activist now running an orphanage in Rwanda. How she got there, and who she is, wow, what a woman. What a story.
Tucker is a medical doctor living in Rwanda and a friend of Lillian. He has his own story as to how he landed there, and he’s one of the most nurturing, loving male characters I’ve witnessed in print.
Nadine is a college student who lost her parents in the genocide of 1994 in Rwanda. She comes of age in this beautiful story, and it’s like witnessing a metamorphosis.
I could keep going with these characters. They are stunning, fleshed out, fallible, vulnerable people.
The writing. Jennifer Haupt spent eleven years writing this story. The investment she had in these characters shines in her writing. The lives of these people intersect in a masterful way. The writing has perfect pacing, ideal flow. The descriptions of Rwanda’s hillsides, the wildlife, and its people, are all done with a light, but impeccably-drawn, hand. Jennifer Haupt’s devotion to this story is apparent through her writing.
The messages. Reading this book is a journey of emotions, and I want you to discover your own messages within these pages. I personally took away lessons on hope and the healing power of forgiveness.
In the Shadow 10,000 Hills is a captivating story of enduring people. It is the prime example of a favorite book of mine, a most-huggable book.
Thanks to Jennifer Haupt for writing this treasure of a novel, Central Avenue Publishing for allowing me to read an early copy, and Netgalley for the ARC. In the Shadow of 10,000 Hills is available now!
I’m pretty lucky in my reading life. I enjoy the vast majority of books I read, including many, many that I love. So when I read a stand-out, something mesmerizing and completely memorable, like this book, I want to shout from the hilltops (rooftops simply aren’t tall enough, and I can never resist a pun!) - READ THIS BOOK. Here’s why.
Lovable characters. So many of my book friends thrive on lovable characters. In the Shadow of 10,000 Hills has complex, endearing, beloved main and secondary characters.
Rachel is pregnant when the reader meets her. Her mother has recently passed away from cancer, and she’s been estranged from her father for years.
Lillian is a human rights’ activist now running an orphanage in Rwanda. How she got there, and who she is, wow, what a woman. What a story.
Tucker is a medical doctor living in Rwanda and a friend of Lillian. He has his own story as to how he landed there, and he’s one of the most nurturing, loving male characters I’ve witnessed in print.
Nadine is a college student who lost her parents in the genocide of 1994 in Rwanda. She comes of age in this beautiful story, and it’s like witnessing a metamorphosis.
I could keep going with these characters. They are stunning, fleshed out, fallible, vulnerable people.
The writing. Jennifer Haupt spent eleven years writing this story. The investment she had in these characters shines in her writing. The lives of these people intersect in a masterful way. The writing has perfect pacing, ideal flow. The descriptions of Rwanda’s hillsides, the wildlife, and its people, are all done with a light, but impeccably-drawn, hand. Jennifer Haupt’s devotion to this story is apparent through her writing.
The messages. Reading this book is a journey of emotions, and I want you to discover your own messages within these pages. I personally took away lessons on hope and the healing power of forgiveness.
In the Shadow 10,000 Hills is a captivating story of enduring people. It is the prime example of a favorite book of mine, a most-huggable book.
Thanks to Jennifer Haupt for writing this treasure of a novel, Central Avenue Publishing for allowing me to read an early copy, and Netgalley for the ARC. In the Shadow of 10,000 Hills is available now!
January 5, 2022
4.5 Stars
”’You must tell, so that justice can be served. It’s your responsibility.’ No she will not tell anyone about the massacre at the church that they called the Hutu glory. She will not remember, at least not during the daylight. But late at night when she becomes so tired that it is impossible to stay awake even with the Internet, that’s when the punishment begins all over again. There is no controlling what comes to her in dreams.”
The stories of three women, Rachel, Lillian, and Nadine, are woven together with the story of Henry and Tucker, and the genocide of over 800,000 people in 1994, slightly more than 23 years ago. The majority of those murdered were Tutsi. Men. Women. Children. The massacre lasted 100 days.
It’s hard to believe this happened ever, harder still to comprehend how recently this occurred, knowing that the rest of the world stood by silently.
Lillian’s story begins when she decides to leave Atlanta following the assassination of Martin Luther King, 1968. She settles in the area, working as a teacher, at first, and then later she devotes herself to the orphaned children of Africa, creating her own small orphanage, caring for herself by caring for these children too young to care for themselves. She came here looking for a life of peaceful meaning, and with this she feels she is fulfilling those dreams.
Rachel’s story begins as she faces a personal test of faith, herself, and decides she will never fully understand the world, her life, until she can find her father, Henry Shepherd. A photographer who gained some degree of fame during the years before the massacre, who had left to capture images globally, but made another home, as well, in Rwanda. And so Rachel leaves New York and heads to Rwanda herself, hopeful for answers, something that will fill that emptiness inside her, hoping Lillian will have some of the answers she seeks.
Natalie’s family is fractured, and she’s tormented by memories that invade her dreams. During the day, her mind drifts to the family she has left, and those who have become her family. The past haunts her, but the present demands she revisit it, again and again. Raised by Lillian, Natalie is one of the 48 orphaned children Lillian raised.
Tucker works on Lillian’s farm / orphanage / school / home, he builds a clinic there for the local families. He was destined to be a surgeon in the footsteps of his father, but wanted a more personally meaningful way to live his life.
And then there’s Henry, an enigma of a man. A photographer, but a man who has demons of his own that he must either learn to fight, or they will destroy him.
Destruction. Genocide. Two words that don’t seem to fit the overall feeling of this story, there’s such a sense of the author’s respect and love for these people who endured so much, an awe for the nature and beauty of grace.
How all these people’s lives are woven together, the stories they have to share … it’s all lovingly woven together into a beautiful story that is about love, grace, forgiveness, the atrocities of war, and those sorrows that never really leave you but that fade to random moments of memories softened by time. It may not be the picture you had in your mind when you began your journey, but you can see the beauty that was created in its place at the end.
Published: 01 Apr 2018
Many thanks for the ARC provided by Central Avenue Publishing
February 28, 2018
I’m so pleased to kick off the prelaunch of my debut novel, out April 2018. (Enter the current Goodreads ARC giveaway and get a notice when it’s available for pre-order!) I began writing this story, without knowing it, while visiting Rwanda in December 2006, as a journalist, interviewing survivors of the genocide 12 years earlier and humanitarian aid workers drawn to this still-grieving country. During that month, I discovered the stories of amahoro that would serve as the bones of a novel, including my own longing for a kind of peace that I had been searching for as long as I could remember but never knew how to name.
I returned home to Seattle wanting to tell interweaving stories of finding amahoro, the Kinyarwanda word for peace, from the viewpoints of three women from vastly different cultures. It took me eleven years to weave together all of these connected stories set against a political backdrop that is not so different than the one drawing deep tribal lines between racial, cultural and partisan groups in our country today. Now, more than ever, I believe the world needs stories of amahoro.
I returned home to Seattle wanting to tell interweaving stories of finding amahoro, the Kinyarwanda word for peace, from the viewpoints of three women from vastly different cultures. It took me eleven years to weave together all of these connected stories set against a political backdrop that is not so different than the one drawing deep tribal lines between racial, cultural and partisan groups in our country today. Now, more than ever, I believe the world needs stories of amahoro.
May 12, 2018
I'm borrowing the first paragraph of the blurb for my review.
I've read another book on the events in the church in Rwanda where so many people were murdered during the Tutsi genocide by the Hutu militia called the Interahamwe. To revisit this tragic events brought the same disturbing and shocking feelings I encountered before. Almost unbearable heartbreak and sadness.
Yet, the book was also about the invisible bonds between people: loyalty, love, compassion, kindness and new beginnings. Beautifully written, atmospheric and mysterious. Henry Sheppard bonded three unlikely women together in the hope that this famous American photographer will one day come home. His legacy and secrets were buried in post cards and photographs he left behind. The future and past were buried deep within his observations of the people and places surrounding the Virunga Mountains in Rwanda, Africa. Lily Carlson, from the American South, Rachel Shephard from New York, and Nadine from Rwanda, shared almost an invisible umbilical cord with Kwizera(the place of Hope). Lily found this farm first and started restoring a place which needed healing as much as the people she would welcome into the safety offered behind its walls.
A deeply moving historical-fiction read.
Follow the intertwining stories of three women from diverse backgrounds, all searching for family and personal peace in post-genocide Rwanda. At the heart of the story... is the discovery of grace when there can be no forgiveness.For me this book was about forgiveness on an imaginable scale. And then to accept the hope and Amahoro(peace)that must conquer the bad nightmares and memories.
I've read another book on the events in the church in Rwanda where so many people were murdered during the Tutsi genocide by the Hutu militia called the Interahamwe. To revisit this tragic events brought the same disturbing and shocking feelings I encountered before. Almost unbearable heartbreak and sadness.
Yet, the book was also about the invisible bonds between people: loyalty, love, compassion, kindness and new beginnings. Beautifully written, atmospheric and mysterious. Henry Sheppard bonded three unlikely women together in the hope that this famous American photographer will one day come home. His legacy and secrets were buried in post cards and photographs he left behind. The future and past were buried deep within his observations of the people and places surrounding the Virunga Mountains in Rwanda, Africa. Lily Carlson, from the American South, Rachel Shephard from New York, and Nadine from Rwanda, shared almost an invisible umbilical cord with Kwizera(the place of Hope). Lily found this farm first and started restoring a place which needed healing as much as the people she would welcome into the safety offered behind its walls.
A deeply moving historical-fiction read.
March 30, 2019
Reconciliation
In the Shadow of 10,000 Hills essentially deals with broken families and the search for answers. The catalyst for the broken families is Henry Shephard, photographer, husband and father to Merilee and Rachel. Who in 1974 leaves his family in the US in search of Lillian, a black activist from the US now living in Rwanda. Following Lillian to Rwanda Henry establishes another family with her and a number of adopted orphaned children. In 2000, Rachel Shepherd, while dealing with her own losses and relationship demons, is in search of her father and arrives in Rwanda realising he abandoned this second family as well. The relationship between Rachel and Lillian requires time and understanding for them to trust and accommodate each other.
It would be easy to dislike Henry because of the broken families he left behind, but I couldn’t completely do so. Was he always torn between different loves in his life? Did he face fierce internal emotional struggles with what his heart wanted and what he was duty bound to deliver? Did his experience of the genocide, affect his emotional stability? None of us is perfect and Jennifer Haupt has developed such interesting multi-faceted characters that you’re never quite sure if you’re going to see the best or worst of human nature. Jennifer uses her wonderful writing ability to illustrate the subtlety in interactions between the characters where simple gestures through a look, a stare or the touch of a hand, are often amplified to create deeper meaning with emotional context.
The backdrop to this story is the post-genocide atrocities in Rwanda when in 1994 the Hutu-led government and militia committed such unspeakable, inhuman acts of barbarism against the Tutsi population that it shocked the world.
This book has everything for me, a great story, characters that grow organically, and the location beautifully described but with a real sense of impact. This touching novel is written with a composure and care that deals with very sensitive issues. It does not allow racial, tribal and cultural divides, and their most horrible manifestations, to dominate the storyline and pays homage and recognition to history as appropriate. The narrative is always conscious of the pace and intrigue that is necessary to keep a reader hooked on a story, and a wonderful story is told.
Many thanks to Central Avenue Publishing and NetGalley for an ARC version of the book in return for an honest review.
In the Shadow of 10,000 Hills essentially deals with broken families and the search for answers. The catalyst for the broken families is Henry Shephard, photographer, husband and father to Merilee and Rachel. Who in 1974 leaves his family in the US in search of Lillian, a black activist from the US now living in Rwanda. Following Lillian to Rwanda Henry establishes another family with her and a number of adopted orphaned children. In 2000, Rachel Shepherd, while dealing with her own losses and relationship demons, is in search of her father and arrives in Rwanda realising he abandoned this second family as well. The relationship between Rachel and Lillian requires time and understanding for them to trust and accommodate each other.
It would be easy to dislike Henry because of the broken families he left behind, but I couldn’t completely do so. Was he always torn between different loves in his life? Did he face fierce internal emotional struggles with what his heart wanted and what he was duty bound to deliver? Did his experience of the genocide, affect his emotional stability? None of us is perfect and Jennifer Haupt has developed such interesting multi-faceted characters that you’re never quite sure if you’re going to see the best or worst of human nature. Jennifer uses her wonderful writing ability to illustrate the subtlety in interactions between the characters where simple gestures through a look, a stare or the touch of a hand, are often amplified to create deeper meaning with emotional context.
The backdrop to this story is the post-genocide atrocities in Rwanda when in 1994 the Hutu-led government and militia committed such unspeakable, inhuman acts of barbarism against the Tutsi population that it shocked the world.
“There are no devils left in hell … they’re all in Rwanda” – stated a famous quote at the time.
This book has everything for me, a great story, characters that grow organically, and the location beautifully described but with a real sense of impact. This touching novel is written with a composure and care that deals with very sensitive issues. It does not allow racial, tribal and cultural divides, and their most horrible manifestations, to dominate the storyline and pays homage and recognition to history as appropriate. The narrative is always conscious of the pace and intrigue that is necessary to keep a reader hooked on a story, and a wonderful story is told.
Many thanks to Central Avenue Publishing and NetGalley for an ARC version of the book in return for an honest review.
April 17, 2018
This is a novel that sheds much needed light on the atrocities of the Rwandan genocide of the 1990s. Again, a book has educated me about an event in history that I knew nothing about. In many ways I think it’s easier to pretend that events like this never really happen to shield our belief in humanity. However, we must learn that left forgotten the survivors of these events also become its victims. I commend Haupt for giving these victims their voice. 5 stars.
April 3, 2018
4.5 sad but ever so relevant stars
It is always difficult to think about the events of genocide. The words never again seem to ring in our minds and yet never again has happened so many times since the horrendous Holocaust set in place by Hitler.
In this novel, we look at the survivors of the Rwandan genocide. How does one continue onward knowing that they have survived and wondering often why me? The characters in this novel are wonderfully diverse and the author offers an insight that is both poignant and filled with the sadness of loss.
From the character of Lillian, a young girl initially involved in the civil rights movement, who then moved to Rwanda to open an orphanage, to the ever complex and oftentimes hard to understand to Henry, a white man who times dictated could not love a black woman, the tale is woven. Henry loves Lillian and yet he leaves her seeming to wander about as he tries to capture through photography the world he sees. We meet Rachel, a daughter from Henry's fist marriage, searching for a father she never really knew. There is Tucker, a medical student who goes to Rwanda looking to help and find meaning in his life. There are also the survivors of this genocide Chloe and Nadine who struggle with being left behind in a world where nothing remains of their family.
This is a debut novel and this author has shown a wonderful ability to capture the pain, the loss, and the sheer effort that people go through trying to rebuild not only themselves but the country of 10,000 hills.
Thanks you to Jennifer Haupt, the publisher, and Edelweiss for making an advanced copy of this novel available to this reader.
It is always difficult to think about the events of genocide. The words never again seem to ring in our minds and yet never again has happened so many times since the horrendous Holocaust set in place by Hitler.
In this novel, we look at the survivors of the Rwandan genocide. How does one continue onward knowing that they have survived and wondering often why me? The characters in this novel are wonderfully diverse and the author offers an insight that is both poignant and filled with the sadness of loss.
From the character of Lillian, a young girl initially involved in the civil rights movement, who then moved to Rwanda to open an orphanage, to the ever complex and oftentimes hard to understand to Henry, a white man who times dictated could not love a black woman, the tale is woven. Henry loves Lillian and yet he leaves her seeming to wander about as he tries to capture through photography the world he sees. We meet Rachel, a daughter from Henry's fist marriage, searching for a father she never really knew. There is Tucker, a medical student who goes to Rwanda looking to help and find meaning in his life. There are also the survivors of this genocide Chloe and Nadine who struggle with being left behind in a world where nothing remains of their family.
This is a debut novel and this author has shown a wonderful ability to capture the pain, the loss, and the sheer effort that people go through trying to rebuild not only themselves but the country of 10,000 hills.
Thanks you to Jennifer Haupt, the publisher, and Edelweiss for making an advanced copy of this novel available to this reader.
April 4, 2018
Jennifer Haupt has written a knockout novel telling a deeply engrossing story of understanding. The human condition and delicate emotions that ebb and flow throughout the search for peace in our lives is intricately examined in both a dynamic and evocative fashion. A story that satisfies both the heart and the mind, and one I would recommend to any reader in search of a touching mystery.
June 15, 2018
“In Rwanda, they have a word ….: Amahoro. It means peace, but so much more.”
Jennifer Haupt writes of the word “Amahoro” often when she is writing about Rwanda. It means a quest for peace, the type of peace that comes within your soul, your essence, when you have truly forgiven someone and now are at rest with the past. It is a difficult state to achieve, much more difficult if you have been through trauma, but it is this peace, the quest for it and the journey taken along the way, that is at the heart of In the Shadow of 10,000 Hills.
This is the tale primarily of Rachel who, after surviving a miscarriage and the death of her mother, feels the need to seek out her estranged father. a photojournalist living in Rwanda. However, it is also about the women of the villages, the aide workers, her father’s new wife who runs an orphanage in Rwanda and about their commonality of grief. Through the story we learn about the horror, the genocide, that occurred in Rwanda in the 1990s, and we learn how difficult it is to put your life back together after such a massive trauma – but also that trauma, no matter how great or small – binds us all together in a very unique way. It is that link that should open our eyes to the horrors we are causing every single day.
10,000 Hills is not meant to be a documentary of the genocide in Rwanda. It is an opportunity for many readers, all over the world, to learn a bit more about this travesty and, through this knowledge, hopefully, to seek out more resources. That is what I adore about world fiction- it whets the appetite to know more. Many who read this never will have heard of Rwanda, nor will they know about the genocide there. Through a beautiful story they will learn. It is the first step.
The tale itself is marvelously written, the prose is beautiful. It is one of those rare books that opens up both another world outside of my “American concepts” as well as nudges me in the direction to seek out my own peace, to be a better person.
Kudos to Haupt for an excellent book that should be read by all. May we and the world seek and experience Amahoro.
Thank you, also, to Jennifer Haupt and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this incredible piece of work
Jennifer Haupt writes of the word “Amahoro” often when she is writing about Rwanda. It means a quest for peace, the type of peace that comes within your soul, your essence, when you have truly forgiven someone and now are at rest with the past. It is a difficult state to achieve, much more difficult if you have been through trauma, but it is this peace, the quest for it and the journey taken along the way, that is at the heart of In the Shadow of 10,000 Hills.
This is the tale primarily of Rachel who, after surviving a miscarriage and the death of her mother, feels the need to seek out her estranged father. a photojournalist living in Rwanda. However, it is also about the women of the villages, the aide workers, her father’s new wife who runs an orphanage in Rwanda and about their commonality of grief. Through the story we learn about the horror, the genocide, that occurred in Rwanda in the 1990s, and we learn how difficult it is to put your life back together after such a massive trauma – but also that trauma, no matter how great or small – binds us all together in a very unique way. It is that link that should open our eyes to the horrors we are causing every single day.
10,000 Hills is not meant to be a documentary of the genocide in Rwanda. It is an opportunity for many readers, all over the world, to learn a bit more about this travesty and, through this knowledge, hopefully, to seek out more resources. That is what I adore about world fiction- it whets the appetite to know more. Many who read this never will have heard of Rwanda, nor will they know about the genocide there. Through a beautiful story they will learn. It is the first step.
The tale itself is marvelously written, the prose is beautiful. It is one of those rare books that opens up both another world outside of my “American concepts” as well as nudges me in the direction to seek out my own peace, to be a better person.
Kudos to Haupt for an excellent book that should be read by all. May we and the world seek and experience Amahoro.
Thank you, also, to Jennifer Haupt and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this incredible piece of work
April 21, 2018
4.5 STARs
You have got to love books. From your chair, you can travel the world and historical periods with just a flip of the page. With this book, I have landed in Rwanda. I was in Rwanda in 2011, to visit my son who was teaching there and of course to go gorilla trekking. This book with its vivid descriptions of the countryside brought me back to when I was there. It is a beautiful country- lush, green and yes, it does have 10,000 hills.
Amahoro-a Kinyarwanda word meaning peace, something all our main characters are striving for. Peace from their memories of the genocide; peace from the memories haunting them. The author has written a very compelling book that revolves around that period of atrocities in Rwanda. How do you move forward after living and surviving when so many did not.
Rachel has come to Rwanda in search of her father who left when she was a child. She goes to the place he called home in Rwanda and connects with his "family" there. The past haunts them all, but the past is what connects them.
A very stirring book about survival, forgiveness and finding Amahoro!
I would like to thank the author, Jennifer Haupt, the publisher and Netgalley for an e copy in exchange for an honest review.
You have got to love books. From your chair, you can travel the world and historical periods with just a flip of the page. With this book, I have landed in Rwanda. I was in Rwanda in 2011, to visit my son who was teaching there and of course to go gorilla trekking. This book with its vivid descriptions of the countryside brought me back to when I was there. It is a beautiful country- lush, green and yes, it does have 10,000 hills.
Amahoro-a Kinyarwanda word meaning peace, something all our main characters are striving for. Peace from their memories of the genocide; peace from the memories haunting them. The author has written a very compelling book that revolves around that period of atrocities in Rwanda. How do you move forward after living and surviving when so many did not.
Rachel has come to Rwanda in search of her father who left when she was a child. She goes to the place he called home in Rwanda and connects with his "family" there. The past haunts them all, but the past is what connects them.
A very stirring book about survival, forgiveness and finding Amahoro!
I would like to thank the author, Jennifer Haupt, the publisher and Netgalley for an e copy in exchange for an honest review.
September 7, 2017
This blazingly original novel is about the illusions of love, the way memory can confound or release you, and the knotted threads that make up family—and forgiveness. Profound, powerful, and oh, so, so moving.”
September 12, 2018
Rachel was eight years old the last time she saw her father, Henry Shepard. A photographer by trade, Henry took off one day and never came back. Rachel always wandered about her father but its not until she suffers heartbreak that she is compelled to look for him. His most famous photo, that of a young Black woman next to Dr. King, leads Rachel to Rwanda and to a woman named Lillian. Lillian is the young woman in the photo turned caregiver of orphans on her farm called Kwizera. Rachel travels to Rwanda in hopes of learning more about who her father was and to finally be able to move on with her life.
I feel quite spoiled lately. The last few books I have read have been nothing short of excellent. 'In The Shadow of 10,000 Hills' is no exception. I knew next to nothing about this book when I picked it but now I know I will not be forgetting it any time soon. Compelling, heart-breaking and meticulously researched and written, this is one of my standout historical fiction books of 2018. Rachel is married and about to become a mother but heartbreak visits her not once but twice. First, her mother dies and shortly after, she miscarries. Feeling aimless and alone, Rachel sets her heart on finding her father, or at least, find out about him. A photographer that had achieved a name for himself, Henry Shepard's most iconic photo is that of Dr. King and a young Black woman standing next to him. Rachel tracks down that girl Lillian, now a woman with an orphanage in Rwanda. Upon arrival in Rwanda Rachel meets Nadine, Lillian' s adoptive daughter, and Tucker, a ex-pat American doctor. Its Henry Shepard that weaves all of these individual stories together.
The prose is touching, heartfelt and beautifully rendered. The characterization on par as well. As the reader, you do not know Henry's full story til the very end and though, he is not physically present for most of the narrative, his presence is tangible. Is he an irresponsible man and a coward that abandoned his family, a man that got surpassed by his circumstances despite doing his best or maybe a bit of both? Dealing with the bonds between parents and children, this narrative is an exploration of what it means to be a family. First and foremost, however, this narrative is about forgiveness and reconcilliation. Wether it be between a parent and child, spouses, friends, or a country and its people that is the theme that was present throughout the book. I loved the multiple points of view and how each character is memorable. I appreciate the fact that though there is romance in this book, its not heavy-handed. I can not say enough good things about this book. Highly, highly recommended!
The background for this work is the 1994 Rwanda Genocide. The Hutu and Tutsi people are rivals in Rwanda and often engaded in brutal warfare. A cease-fire agreement was in place but was ultimately dismantled when the plane in which Juvenal Habyarima, the president of Rwanda, was shot down (Cyprien Ntaryamina, the president of Burundi was also on board). This incident occurred on April 6. On April 7, the genocide began and lasted for 100 days. An estimated 800,000 Tutsi people were slaughtered by the Hutu. Machetes and clubs were weapons used in the slaughter but rape too was a weapon that left many infected with HIV. Its hard to believe that this terrible and deplorable incident happened not that long ago and while its difficult to read about, I thank Haupt for bringign it to the forefront.
I feel quite spoiled lately. The last few books I have read have been nothing short of excellent. 'In The Shadow of 10,000 Hills' is no exception. I knew next to nothing about this book when I picked it but now I know I will not be forgetting it any time soon. Compelling, heart-breaking and meticulously researched and written, this is one of my standout historical fiction books of 2018. Rachel is married and about to become a mother but heartbreak visits her not once but twice. First, her mother dies and shortly after, she miscarries. Feeling aimless and alone, Rachel sets her heart on finding her father, or at least, find out about him. A photographer that had achieved a name for himself, Henry Shepard's most iconic photo is that of Dr. King and a young Black woman standing next to him. Rachel tracks down that girl Lillian, now a woman with an orphanage in Rwanda. Upon arrival in Rwanda Rachel meets Nadine, Lillian' s adoptive daughter, and Tucker, a ex-pat American doctor. Its Henry Shepard that weaves all of these individual stories together.
The prose is touching, heartfelt and beautifully rendered. The characterization on par as well. As the reader, you do not know Henry's full story til the very end and though, he is not physically present for most of the narrative, his presence is tangible. Is he an irresponsible man and a coward that abandoned his family, a man that got surpassed by his circumstances despite doing his best or maybe a bit of both? Dealing with the bonds between parents and children, this narrative is an exploration of what it means to be a family. First and foremost, however, this narrative is about forgiveness and reconcilliation. Wether it be between a parent and child, spouses, friends, or a country and its people that is the theme that was present throughout the book. I loved the multiple points of view and how each character is memorable. I appreciate the fact that though there is romance in this book, its not heavy-handed. I can not say enough good things about this book. Highly, highly recommended!
The background for this work is the 1994 Rwanda Genocide. The Hutu and Tutsi people are rivals in Rwanda and often engaded in brutal warfare. A cease-fire agreement was in place but was ultimately dismantled when the plane in which Juvenal Habyarima, the president of Rwanda, was shot down (Cyprien Ntaryamina, the president of Burundi was also on board). This incident occurred on April 6. On April 7, the genocide began and lasted for 100 days. An estimated 800,000 Tutsi people were slaughtered by the Hutu. Machetes and clubs were weapons used in the slaughter but rape too was a weapon that left many infected with HIV. Its hard to believe that this terrible and deplorable incident happened not that long ago and while its difficult to read about, I thank Haupt for bringign it to the forefront.
April 23, 2018
Sometimes you just know, almost as soon as you start reading, that you're going to love a book. This was one of those times. I started In the Shadow of 10000 Hills by Jennifer Haupt with high expectations and not for one moment was I disappointed. The note from Michelle Halket, Publisher, set the tone perfectly.
" This isn’t the kind of book that hits you over the head with the gore of what happened over twenty years ago when a million people perished. Sure, it’s a book about something the world needs to know. But it’s also a book about three women from vastly different cultures that find the ties that bind them in the most unlikely of circumstances. More than anything, it’s a book about finding family, love and grace when there can be no forgiveness.
She also made an observation about the fact the world didn't know (or care) about Rwanda. I felt somewhat ashamed to realise that I fell into the category of those who didn't know. Not really. Not in any detail. The shocking history of Rwanda's genocide - the clash between Tutsi's and Hutu's - was interwoven into this story, somewhat remedying my knowledge gap and most definitely placing me firmly amongst those who do care. Meanwhile, I was caught up in Rachel, Lilian & Nadine's stories. I admired Lilian for devoting her life to raising orphans, yet she always judged herself harshly feeling she wasn't doing enough. I felt compassion for Rachel seeking to understand how and why her father abandoned her at age 8, trying to reconcile her memories and fantasies of him with the sometimes less than pleasant realities. I felt such sympathy for Nadine who was 13 when she witnessed the atrocities, lost her entire family and was herself terrorised. Six years on she's still dealing daily with the memories and I couldn't help respect the way she did all possible to spare her new family from the details, wanting only amahoro (peace). I loved Lillian's prayer for Nadine and the other children in her care “Lord, may my children have the peace in their sleep that is not always possible during waking hours.
I was smitten with the writing, loved the story and was grateful for the way Jennifer Haupt opened my eyes in an impartial and fair way to the events in 1994 Rwanda. Everyone in Rwanda was touched in some way and as Lillian said " everyone here is summoning what’s left of their faith, some praying and some only hoping that mankind’s capacity for love is greater than the history of our deeds."
Thanks so much to Central Avenue Publishing and NetGalley for the opportunity of reading this digital ARC in exchange for an honest review which it was my pleasure to provide.
" This isn’t the kind of book that hits you over the head with the gore of what happened over twenty years ago when a million people perished. Sure, it’s a book about something the world needs to know. But it’s also a book about three women from vastly different cultures that find the ties that bind them in the most unlikely of circumstances. More than anything, it’s a book about finding family, love and grace when there can be no forgiveness.
She also made an observation about the fact the world didn't know (or care) about Rwanda. I felt somewhat ashamed to realise that I fell into the category of those who didn't know. Not really. Not in any detail. The shocking history of Rwanda's genocide - the clash between Tutsi's and Hutu's - was interwoven into this story, somewhat remedying my knowledge gap and most definitely placing me firmly amongst those who do care. Meanwhile, I was caught up in Rachel, Lilian & Nadine's stories. I admired Lilian for devoting her life to raising orphans, yet she always judged herself harshly feeling she wasn't doing enough. I felt compassion for Rachel seeking to understand how and why her father abandoned her at age 8, trying to reconcile her memories and fantasies of him with the sometimes less than pleasant realities. I felt such sympathy for Nadine who was 13 when she witnessed the atrocities, lost her entire family and was herself terrorised. Six years on she's still dealing daily with the memories and I couldn't help respect the way she did all possible to spare her new family from the details, wanting only amahoro (peace). I loved Lillian's prayer for Nadine and the other children in her care “Lord, may my children have the peace in their sleep that is not always possible during waking hours.
I was smitten with the writing, loved the story and was grateful for the way Jennifer Haupt opened my eyes in an impartial and fair way to the events in 1994 Rwanda. Everyone in Rwanda was touched in some way and as Lillian said " everyone here is summoning what’s left of their faith, some praying and some only hoping that mankind’s capacity for love is greater than the history of our deeds."
Thanks so much to Central Avenue Publishing and NetGalley for the opportunity of reading this digital ARC in exchange for an honest review which it was my pleasure to provide.
May 28, 2020
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
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
November 14, 2017
Jennifer Haupt's debut novel is a stunner. "In the Shadow of 10,000 Hills" weaves the devastation of Rwanda's genocide inside the emotional trauma of abandonment. Haupt does not shy from this country's horror. Front and center, it plays out as we travel with the main character, a woman named Rachel, who is determined to find the father who left her when she was a young child. Although we have questions --What happened to Henry, Rachel's father, a photographer who bore witness to the murders? What is Tucker, the kind doctor saving lives in the hills, hiding? And what moves Lillian, the woman who replaced Rachel's mother, to finally embrace Rachel with an open heart? So many questions but all deftly answered by the end. Written in beautiful prose with a lyricism impossible to ignore, this debut is a page-turner with a heart.
March 27, 2022
Jennifer Haupt's heartbreaking novel is set in Rwanda, a few years after the mid 90's genocide. Rachel, an American, travels to Rwanda to try to track down her father, Henry, who disappeared when she was a child. Her search leads her to Lillian, who spent 20 years living with Henry. Rachel is at a crossroads; wracked with grief, in search of answers to her questions, and she longs to resume her relationship with her father. What Rachel ultimately finds in Rwanda is much more valuable than she imagined. Told in lovely prose, Haupt clearly knows her subject, and pens a beautiful, poignant tribute to Rwanda. Exploring themes of grief, abandonment, loss, love, healing, the horror of violence, the barbarism of prejudice, and the complications of family, this novel is a glittering gem.
September 3, 2017
Jennifer Haupt is a gifted writer and a big talent. Her beautifully told story manages--with grace and compassion and deep wisdom--to embrace the journey of heartache and restoration of an American woman in search of her father's truth as she wrestles with the mysteries and vagaries of love. This debut has a timeless quality to it. Splendid and memorable--put this one at the top of your reading list.
December 15, 2019
Historical fiction about three women coming to terms with grief and seeking personal peace in Rwanda. Each of the three primary characters has experienced loss. All are connected to Henry Shepherd, a photojournalist, who has abandoned two families. The storyline revolves around the unraveling the mystery of Henry’s disappearance, while gaining an understanding of how the people of Rwanda are coping with the aftermath of the 1994 genocide.
This is an American look at an African tragedy. It is about a search for family and the healing of wounds, some of which are so deep they may never be mended or forgiven. This book involves multiple narrators and jumps back and forth to different timelines from before, during, and years after the genocide. Haupt includes enough information about Rwanda’s history without overgeneralizing. This is an ambitious novel, covering a variety of complex interpersonal relationships and tackling heavy subjects such as race, grief, compassion, loneliness, belonging, and vulnerability.
Haupt’s writing is beautifully detailed and descriptive, providing a sense of place and community. The characters are well-developed and believable, and the conclusion is satisfying. There are a few plot holes and inconsistencies, and the inclusion of a romance seems unnecessary, but this is a promising debut.
This is an American look at an African tragedy. It is about a search for family and the healing of wounds, some of which are so deep they may never be mended or forgiven. This book involves multiple narrators and jumps back and forth to different timelines from before, during, and years after the genocide. Haupt includes enough information about Rwanda’s history without overgeneralizing. This is an ambitious novel, covering a variety of complex interpersonal relationships and tackling heavy subjects such as race, grief, compassion, loneliness, belonging, and vulnerability.
Haupt’s writing is beautifully detailed and descriptive, providing a sense of place and community. The characters are well-developed and believable, and the conclusion is satisfying. There are a few plot holes and inconsistencies, and the inclusion of a romance seems unnecessary, but this is a promising debut.
January 30, 2018
This is a beautiful well written novel about a horrific event in world history - the genocide in Rwanda in the 1990s. It's about love and creating our families not from blood but from the people who mean the most to us.
The book follows the intertwining stories of three women. Lillian who left the US after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King and went to Rwanda hoping to help children in Rwanda. She runs a small orphanage taking care of children both physically and mentally. Nadine, one of the children raised by Lillian is now a college student but has terrible memories of a massacre in her village. Rachel, an American girl who is searching for her father who abandoned her as a child to follow Lillian and become a photo-journalist in Rwanda. These three women share a deep bond of loss and love and hopefully forgiveness set against a backdrop of the beauty of Africa.
I am normally a very fast reader but read this book slowly because the writing is so beautiful and the descriptions of the country are so lovely. It honestly is one of the best books that I've read in a long time.
The author dedicates her book "To all of those searching for amarhoro." The word amarhoro translates to 'peace' but in Rwanda it conveys sorrow for the past and hope for the future. Amarhoro is something that we all need in our lives.
Thanks to the author for a copy of this book to read and review. All opinions are my own.
The book follows the intertwining stories of three women. Lillian who left the US after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King and went to Rwanda hoping to help children in Rwanda. She runs a small orphanage taking care of children both physically and mentally. Nadine, one of the children raised by Lillian is now a college student but has terrible memories of a massacre in her village. Rachel, an American girl who is searching for her father who abandoned her as a child to follow Lillian and become a photo-journalist in Rwanda. These three women share a deep bond of loss and love and hopefully forgiveness set against a backdrop of the beauty of Africa.
I am normally a very fast reader but read this book slowly because the writing is so beautiful and the descriptions of the country are so lovely. It honestly is one of the best books that I've read in a long time.
The author dedicates her book "To all of those searching for amarhoro." The word amarhoro translates to 'peace' but in Rwanda it conveys sorrow for the past and hope for the future. Amarhoro is something that we all need in our lives.
Thanks to the author for a copy of this book to read and review. All opinions are my own.
April 1, 2018
In The Shadow of 10,000 Hills is unlike any other book I've ever read. In Jennifer Haupt's review of her novel, she says it took her 11 years to bring this story together, and I personally believe that hard work really paid off for her. This novel is so original, and I felt the author's connection to the story she's presented here.
The prose is earnest and astute, the characters so well formed, the story so engaging. This book took me on a journey and evoked feelings of yearning and desperation while also giving me hope.
On the same note, there were times when I had a hard time staying invested in the story, and I still don't know why that is. There were instances where I did not feel ready or willing to return to the story, and I don't know if that is because I was lacking any personal connection to the story and/or its characters, or if it was because the historical relation was just too brutal for me to read for extended lengths of time.
Over all, I absolutely recommend this book. I think it's an important read for the historical aspects, but I also really think Jennifer Haupt did an incredible job writing a story that was clearly very personal and heartfelt to her. You could feel her admiration for these characters and their stories in the ways she chose to portray them.
Thank you to NetGalley, Central Avenue Publishing and Jennifer Haupt for a digital ARC of this novel in exchange for my honest review. Intended publication set for April 1, 2018.
The prose is earnest and astute, the characters so well formed, the story so engaging. This book took me on a journey and evoked feelings of yearning and desperation while also giving me hope.
On the same note, there were times when I had a hard time staying invested in the story, and I still don't know why that is. There were instances where I did not feel ready or willing to return to the story, and I don't know if that is because I was lacking any personal connection to the story and/or its characters, or if it was because the historical relation was just too brutal for me to read for extended lengths of time.
Over all, I absolutely recommend this book. I think it's an important read for the historical aspects, but I also really think Jennifer Haupt did an incredible job writing a story that was clearly very personal and heartfelt to her. You could feel her admiration for these characters and their stories in the ways she chose to portray them.
Thank you to NetGalley, Central Avenue Publishing and Jennifer Haupt for a digital ARC of this novel in exchange for my honest review. Intended publication set for April 1, 2018.
November 12, 2017
Jennifer is a master at evoking a particular time and place in history. Her writing gently invited me to discard what I thought I knew about the US Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s and the Rwandan genocide in the late 1990s, in order to gain a more complex and intimate understanding of some of the stories that emerged. Her sensory descriptions make it easy to step into each scene, particularly the landscapes and townscapes of Rwanda. I have never traveled there but Jennifer's writing made me feel as if I know it. I also loved the plot twists that kept me turning pages all the way to the end. I highly recommend!
March 22, 2018
How does one create a novel out of the unspeakable horror that occurred in the mid-nineties in Rwanda? One way would be to look at it from the present, weaving in characters affected, directly or indirectly, by the genocide of some 800,000. Then create one character whose actions, whereabouts, and links to the other characters provide a mystery readers will want solved. Add to this some dazzling description that takes you from London to New York to the lushness of a Rwanda forest. Once pain, revenge, justice, and forgiveness are added, only one thing is missing: Heart. But in that, author Jennifer Haupt was most generous. Highly Recommended.
December 10, 2017
In the Shadow of 10,000 Hills is a searing, large-hearted and beautifully written novel about three women whose lives connect in Rwanda post-genocide. It’s a difficult subject, but Haupt manages to find the light within the shadows, the "amahoro" that endures after loss both personal and global.
The plot is intricate but gripping; in page after page of luminous prose, Haupt skillfully braids one moving story out of three seemingly disparate lives.
Lovely and true.
The plot is intricate but gripping; in page after page of luminous prose, Haupt skillfully braids one moving story out of three seemingly disparate lives.
Lovely and true.
August 22, 2018
In 2000, Rachel is living in New York with her husband, desperately wanting a child and starting to wonder about her own father who disappeared to travel the world as a photographer almost 30 years before. She has one lead which is a woman named Lillian, living in Rwanda, that she reaches out to and eventually decides to visit in order to try and learn what she can about her father. It is through this trip that she also learns more about Rwanda and the appalling genocide in 1994, and how that impacted her father and those around him.
Although this doesn't sound like a very uplifting novel, it is surprisingly layered and beautiful. It is much more about strength and hope than death and war. I was really impressed that this was Haupt's first novel - she has such a delicate style and is able to describe the most despicable acts in a way that is moving, but not disturbing enough that you turn away. Because although this is a novel, it is based on her own experiences interviewing those in Rwanda in 2006, and the story of what happened in Rwanda should be told and remembered.
I decided to request this book from NetGalley (thanks to NetGalley and the Publisher for providing me with an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review) after seeing some of the reviews from my friends all landing at 5 stars. It really intrigued me that a book which such strong subject matter could elicit such high reviews, but now I understand. I encourage anyone who enjoys character driven fiction, world events or historical fiction to pick up a copy of this beautiful book.
Although this doesn't sound like a very uplifting novel, it is surprisingly layered and beautiful. It is much more about strength and hope than death and war. I was really impressed that this was Haupt's first novel - she has such a delicate style and is able to describe the most despicable acts in a way that is moving, but not disturbing enough that you turn away. Because although this is a novel, it is based on her own experiences interviewing those in Rwanda in 2006, and the story of what happened in Rwanda should be told and remembered.
I decided to request this book from NetGalley (thanks to NetGalley and the Publisher for providing me with an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review) after seeing some of the reviews from my friends all landing at 5 stars. It really intrigued me that a book which such strong subject matter could elicit such high reviews, but now I understand. I encourage anyone who enjoys character driven fiction, world events or historical fiction to pick up a copy of this beautiful book.
May 20, 2018
The beauty and power of fiction lie in its ability to open doors to truths we may be too frightened, weary, or ignorant of to seek out in news sources or historical accounts. Many read to escape, not to be brought into the middle of the fray. But I venture that all of us read to feel, and feel deeply.
I recall vividly the Rwandan genocide in the spring of 1994, when nearly a million Rwandans — mostly Tutsi minority —were slaughtered by the ethnic majority Hutus. The killing spree was of such speed and ferocity that it seemed something out of a horror novel. And it occurred as the world was watching the rending apart of Yugoslavia. Distracted and fearful, political powers were slow to react. The world abandoned Rwanda.
Jennifer Haupt traveled to Rwanda in 2006 to interview survivors and observe the long process of reconciliation and accountability. She left with stories of atrocities beyond imagining, as well as stories of hope, forgiveness, and redemption. Ten years later she completed the novel that was seeded in her heart during that trip, a novel that brings readers into the heart of a place and time few in the Western world understand or even seek to revisit.
In The Shadow of 10,000 Hills weaves together stories of three women searching for truth and purpose in tragedy. Their common bonds are the shadow of a man, a father to one, lover to another, and rescuer to a third, and the shadows found in the Rift Valley hills where Rwanda lies lush and green and shattered by violence.
After the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., Lillian Carlson, a young black civil rights activist, moves to Africa to find a way to carry out MLK's dream of compassion and peaceful justice. She works first in Kenya, then opens an orphanage in Rwanda, restoring a pitiful farm into an abundant plantation. Lillian is also retreating from a country that forbid her to be with the man she loves, white photojournalist Henry Shepherd. Their taboo relationship can't withstand American societal pressure. Lillian leaves the country and Henry marries a high school sweetheart to whom he feels a sense of duty, but little love. Their daughter becomes his bright spot, but even she isn't enough to hold him to home and family. Henry abandons his wife and child and meets up again with Lillian in Rwanda. But he doesn't stay.
At the novel's opening that abandoned daughter, Rachel, has recently lost both her mother and her baby. Grief unmoors her and sets her on a quest to find her father. The emotional journey becomes a literal one. Rachel travels to Rwanda, where Lillian reluctantly opens her home, but withholds much of her truth.
Bridging the gulf between Henry's daughter and the woman he truly loved is Nadine, a young Tutsi woman who barely survived the genocide. Nadine is now a college student in Kenya, home for a holiday break when Rachel arrives. Although the character most in need of healing and answers, Nadine becomes the thread that binds the wounds of the past and brings these isolated characters together.
Haupt writes with warmth and grace, allowing the reader to breathe into the horrific recent past of Rwanda. We who sit in the safety of our prosperity would do well to seek out the stories of those broken apart by political, ethnic, and cultural injustice caused by fear and hate. These are cautionary events that we must heed, given how close we are to our own destruction. Novels such as In The Shadow of 10,000 Hills allow us to imagine the possibilities that we harbor in our own hearts for hate, and for hope.
Highly Recommended.
I recall vividly the Rwandan genocide in the spring of 1994, when nearly a million Rwandans — mostly Tutsi minority —were slaughtered by the ethnic majority Hutus. The killing spree was of such speed and ferocity that it seemed something out of a horror novel. And it occurred as the world was watching the rending apart of Yugoslavia. Distracted and fearful, political powers were slow to react. The world abandoned Rwanda.
Jennifer Haupt traveled to Rwanda in 2006 to interview survivors and observe the long process of reconciliation and accountability. She left with stories of atrocities beyond imagining, as well as stories of hope, forgiveness, and redemption. Ten years later she completed the novel that was seeded in her heart during that trip, a novel that brings readers into the heart of a place and time few in the Western world understand or even seek to revisit.
In The Shadow of 10,000 Hills weaves together stories of three women searching for truth and purpose in tragedy. Their common bonds are the shadow of a man, a father to one, lover to another, and rescuer to a third, and the shadows found in the Rift Valley hills where Rwanda lies lush and green and shattered by violence.
After the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., Lillian Carlson, a young black civil rights activist, moves to Africa to find a way to carry out MLK's dream of compassion and peaceful justice. She works first in Kenya, then opens an orphanage in Rwanda, restoring a pitiful farm into an abundant plantation. Lillian is also retreating from a country that forbid her to be with the man she loves, white photojournalist Henry Shepherd. Their taboo relationship can't withstand American societal pressure. Lillian leaves the country and Henry marries a high school sweetheart to whom he feels a sense of duty, but little love. Their daughter becomes his bright spot, but even she isn't enough to hold him to home and family. Henry abandons his wife and child and meets up again with Lillian in Rwanda. But he doesn't stay.
At the novel's opening that abandoned daughter, Rachel, has recently lost both her mother and her baby. Grief unmoors her and sets her on a quest to find her father. The emotional journey becomes a literal one. Rachel travels to Rwanda, where Lillian reluctantly opens her home, but withholds much of her truth.
Bridging the gulf between Henry's daughter and the woman he truly loved is Nadine, a young Tutsi woman who barely survived the genocide. Nadine is now a college student in Kenya, home for a holiday break when Rachel arrives. Although the character most in need of healing and answers, Nadine becomes the thread that binds the wounds of the past and brings these isolated characters together.
Haupt writes with warmth and grace, allowing the reader to breathe into the horrific recent past of Rwanda. We who sit in the safety of our prosperity would do well to seek out the stories of those broken apart by political, ethnic, and cultural injustice caused by fear and hate. These are cautionary events that we must heed, given how close we are to our own destruction. Novels such as In The Shadow of 10,000 Hills allow us to imagine the possibilities that we harbor in our own hearts for hate, and for hope.
Highly Recommended.
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