In the Shadow of 10,000 Hills
In her introduction to In the Shadow of 10,000 Hills, Michelle Halket admits that she was never one to follow the news. But the news about Rwanda in 1994 consumed her. She writes, “A few years later, I was working at a large firm and met a woman from Rwanda. My face dropped and she said to me in surprise, ‘You know?’ I told her that of course I do, doesn’t everyone? She looked immensely sad, lowered her face and said, ‘No, they don’t.’ I’ve carried her face and words with me since then: the world didn’t know (or care) about Rwanda.”
I didn’t know about Rwanda either. Mostly because my biggest concern in 1994 was how I was finally going to stop biting my nails and not what was happening halfway around the world. So, In the Shadow of 10,000 Hills by Jennifer Haupt opened my eyes to the 1994 Rwanda genocide.
Summary of In the Shadow of 10,000 Hills
After a miscarriage, Rachel feels the urge to seek out her estranged photojournalist father, Henry, who she learns lived in Rwanda. She travels to Rwanda 10 years after the genocide to meet Lillian. Originally from Georgia, Lillian operates an orphanage in Rwanda that she and Henry built together. During her stay, Rachel learns about her father while witnessing how Rwandans come to terms with the genocide.
Haupt also visited Rwanda a decade after the genocide. On her bio page, Haupt explains that she traveled to Rwanda as a journalist “to explore the connections between forgiveness and grief.” She writes, “It struck me that the common human bond, the thing that ties us all together and transcends our differences, is grief. My quest became more about finding grace — personal peace — than forgiveness. In Rwanda, they have a word for this: Amahoro. It means peace, but so much more. This is the core theme of the novel I worked on for eleven years. Now, more than ever, I believe the world needs Amahoro.”
I hope that grief isn’t the only thing that transcends our differences, but it is a powerful unifier. Haupt makes a valuable point about Amahoro though, and Nadine, Lillian and Henry’s adopted daughter, has the best story arc relating the genocide and the idea of personal peace.
In the Shadow of 10,000 Hills Review
In her introduction, Halket points out that the three leading ladies in “In the Shadow of 10,000 Hills” come from different backgrounds, but they all work together and support each other. This juxtaposed against the close-mindedness that caused the genocide, makes In the Shadow of 10,000 Hills a beautiful work of art.
In In the Shadow of 10,000, Haupt illustrates that close-mindedness with scenes that read like dystopian fiction—ethic ID cards, a highway turned catacomb, people hiding underwater breathing through reeds. Unfortunately these images are historically accurate. By the 1930s the Belgian colonial government added ethnicity to Rwanda identification cards. The government classified citizens as either Hutu, Tutsi, Twa or a naturalized citizen. By classifying Rwandans as Hutu and Tutsi on ID cards, the Belgian colonial government laid the foundation for the Rwandan genocide. “No other factor was more significant in facilitating the speed and magnitude of the 100 days of mass killing in Rwanda,” says Jim Fussel of Prevent Genocide International.
In the Shadow of 10,000 Hills is a powerful reminder of how easily we humans can be divided based on arbitrary distictions. I can’t think of anyone who wouldn’t like this book. The characters are authentic and unforgettable, the pacing is spot-on, and it makes you think. Although it does deal with the serious issue of the Rwandan genocide, In the Shadow of 10,000 Hills is not depressing. Instead, it is both moving and hopeful.
In the Shadow of 10,000 Hills
by Jennifer Haupt
