Review
An e-arc of the book has been provided by the publisher, Penguin Random House International, in exchange for an honest review.
“I hoped that none of these new refugees would be forgotten as we were for decades, forever lost in a permanent impermanence.”
A poignant and beautiful eye-opening life story of a Congonese refugee.
The intensity of this memoirs is truly mind-blowing. At some point, while reading this book, my mind keeps on blocking the reality of the story. I was reading it as something that is fictional to stop myself from cascading into anxiety. It was surreal to read the firsthand experience of a boy—a BOY! might I remind you—experiencing genocide. It is appalling and I needed to put the book down to breathe as, one by one, this boy’s friends and family dies. Never experiencing proper childhood but the horror of life, Mondiant became so much older for his age. Despite all that, he never lost that light of kindness within him. Considering it ate up most of his childhood life, it was an amazing thing how he never resorted to the violence the life has offered.
“I was so young. But living through a war makes you older. When you are three or four or five years old and you spend a year living in a war you become as wise as if you were twenty years old. You learn when to close your eyes and how to keep them open even while you sleep. You stop asking for food no matter how hungry you are. You see people dying wherever you go, and you you say, “Wow, I’m next.”
It breaks my heart that the reality of our world is extremely cruel. The never ending war, big or small, ruins so many wonderful experiences these kids and families could have had. Mondiant told his story. He showed us his vulnerability in order for us to know his truth. I want to give him a huge hug.