Deogratias, A Tale of Rwanda - Softcover

J.P. Stassen

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1596431032 ISBN 13: 9781596431034

Publisher: First Second, 2006

Synopsis

The 2000 winner of the Goscinny Prize for outstanding graphic novel script, this is the harrowing tale of the Tutsi genocide in Rwanda, as seen through the eyes of a boy named Deogratias. He is an ordinary teenager, in love with a girl named Bénigne, but Deogratias is a Hutu and Bénigne is a Tutsi who dies in the genocide, and Deogratias himself plays a part in her death. As the story circles around but never depicts the terror and brutality of an entire country descending into violence, we watch Deogratias in his pursuit of Bénigne, and we see his grief and descent into madness following her death, as he comes to believe he is a dog.

Told with great artistry and intelligence, this book offers a window into a dark chapter of recent human history and exposes the West's role in the tragedy. Stassen's interweaving of the aftermath of the genocide and the events leading up to it heightens the impact of the horror, giving powerful expression to the unspeakable, indescribable experience of ordinary Hutus caught up in the violence. Difficult, beautiful, honest, and heartbreaking, this is a major work by a masterful artist.

About this title

About the Author

J.P. Stassen was born and raised in Belgium. His books have been published in multiple languages, and his remarkable artistry has won him many awards. Some of his works are imbued with the places he lived, such as the Goscinny winner Deogratias, and Tangiers in The Old Frenchman's Bar. After living in various places including Latin America, Mozambique, and Rwanda, he settled in Paris, where he lives today.

Reviews

Grade 10 Up–In this harrowing fictionalized account of the Rwandan genocide, readers meet Deogratias, a teenaged Hutu. His friends Benina and Apollinaria are Tutsi–a race that is being ethnically cleansed by Hutu extremists. As the conflict escalates, Deogratias witnesses murders and is forced to become involved in brutal acts of violence. He suffers a mental breakdown. The story is told through a series of flashbacks while he skates the line between rational and insane. Stassen spares his readers none of the brutality and visceral cruelties of this atrocity. Scenes of rape, harsh language, and some sexual content solidly designate this book for a mature audience. An introduction sets the backdrop and explains the historical significance of the period. This is one of the most intense, gripping graphic novels to date; libraries with other factually themed titles, such as those by Joe Sacco, Marjane Satrapi, and Art Spiegelman, should purchase it. A masterful work with vibrant, confident art, this book will stay with and haunt its readers.–Jennifer Feigelman, Goshen Public Library and Historical Society, NY
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Starred Review. Deogratias means "thanks be to God," and it's the name of a boy coming of age in Rwanda in 1994. He is just figuring out what it means to be a man, and wrestling with the feelings he harbors toward two sisters, Apollinaria and Benina. The sisters are themselves struggling to establish their own place in society and understand the difficult decisions their mother, Venetia, has made—Apollinaria's real father is a white Catholic priest, and Venetia has been forced to leave the country in the past to save her daughters. But Deogratias is Hutu, and they are Tutsi, a simple fact that renders all of their internal battles irrelevant. This award-winning comic was originally published in Belgium in 2000 and has an introduction explaining the history leading to the Rwandan genocide. The heartbreaking power of Deogratias is how it keeps the reader distant from the atrocities by showing the trivial cruelties of everyday life before and after the genocide. Stassen is a journalist who lives in Rwanda, and his art is bold and clear, using different color palettes to seamlessly shift between before and after. There is no catharsis, only the realization that even justice turns its champion into a monster. (Apr.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Gr. 11-12. The tragedy and international shame of the Rwandan genocide that took place in the 1990s is realized in this fictional and symbolism-studded parable. The title character, a dehumanized, Hutu man, crawls through many of these clear-line, full-color pages, often hallucinating and in need of drink in a fruitless effort to drown his memories of the rapes, pillages, and massacres visited upon the Tutsi minority. European responsibility for the ethnic war is presented cogently and without reluctance through the actions and dialogue of several Belgian characters. Stassen, a Belgian who lives in Rwanda, depicts the horror and violence (including brutal rape and the starvation of children) in small, compact panels and uses moody colorings and expressive characterizations to convey much of the human tragedy. Several pages of background on the genocide will help ease readers unfamiliar with the history into the story. For the same mature teen audience that reads Joe Sacco's Safe Area Gorazde: The War in Eastern Bosnia, 1992-1995 (2002), this book vividly shows the power of fiction to introduce fact. For adult readers as well as YAs. Francisca Goldsmith
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: First Second
• Publication date: 2006
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1596431032
• ISBN 13: 9781596431034
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 79