Read by Waceke Wambaa

A moving, unforgettable tribute to a Tutsi woman who did everything to protect her children from the Rwandan genocide, by the daughter who refuses to let her family's story be forgottenThe Barefoot Woman is the story of the author's mother, a fierce, loving woman who for years protected her family from the violence encroaching upon them in pre-genocide Rwanda. Recording her memories of their life together in spare, wrenching prose, Mukasonga preserves her mother's voice in a haunting work of art. "A living-record document, the voice of culture, tradition, and hope." "Radiant with love…The Barefoot Woman powerfully continues the tradition of women's work it so lovingly recounts." "A profoundly affecting memoir of a mother lost to ethnic violence." "A powerful work of witness and memorial…{that} rescues a million souls from the collective noun 'genocide,' returning them to us as individual human beings, who lived, laughed, meddled in each other's affairs, worked, decorated their houses, raised children, told stories." "This is an important book written for a strong and loving woman."

Mode of access: World Wide Web