Read by Virtic Emil Brown

The stories in Igifu summon phantom memories of Rwanda and radiate with the fierce ache of a survivor. Scholastique Mukasonga's five autobiographical stories rend a glorious Rwanda from the obliterating force of recent history, conjuring the noble cows of her home or the dew-swollen grass they graze on. In the title story, five-year-old Colomba tells of a merciless overlord, hunger or "igifu," gnawing away at her belly. She searches for sap at the bud of a flower, scraps of sweet potato at the foot of her parent's bed, or a few grains of sorghum in the floor sweepings. Igifu becomes a dizzying hole in her stomach, a plunging abyss into which she falls. In a desperate act of preservation, Colomba's mother gathers enough sorghum to whip up a nourishing porridge, bringing Colomba back to life. This elixir courses through each story, a balm to soothe the pains of those so ferociously fighting for survival. The writing eclipses the great gaps of time and memory; in one scene she is a child sitting squat with a jug of sweet, frothy milk, and in another she is an exiled teacher, writing down lists of her dead. As in all her work, Mukasonga sits up with them, her witty and beaming beloved. "Mukasonga's autobiographical short stories about Rwanda plunge the depths of memory and grief but also love and hope." "Mukasonga's gift lies in illustrating the day-to-day reality of a persecuted minority, the calculations that must be made and the humiliations endured." "Leave{s} the reader with profound appreciation for the resilience and generosity of the Tutsi people…Will expose most Western readers to unexpected new worlds." "Igifu may be her brightest, most eye-opening work yet." "{Mukasonga} mediates the personal through fable to convey the sense of a collective past…The devastation in Mukasonga's stories is only amplified by the short story form." "The stories are glittering gems; together in their own collective, they shed smoothness, and each edge is felt." "The heartbreaking realities of their plights are balanced by absorbing glimpses into Tutsi culture and the characters' unquenchable senses of hope." "Mukasonga writes with world-weary matter-of-factness, her stories understated testimonials to the worst of times. Elegant and elegiac stories that speak to loss, redemption, and endless sorrow."

Mode of access: World Wide Web