Not My Time to Die

“This book was one of the first literary testimonies that I read in French about Rwanda. I found it profoundly moving — both realistic and introspective. Thanks to this beautiful translation, it is at long last available to the English-speaking public.” — Véronique Tadjo

“Reading Yolande Mukagasana’s book in French at the age of fifteen changed my life. I realized that genocide is not a mass crime but a single murder repeated hundreds of thousands of times. With this testimony the genocide is no longer just a historical event, it is instead the story of a woman, a mother, a Tutsi. And this is what makes Yolande’s account universal.” — Gaël Faye

“Reading Not My Time to Die was an unsettling experience. I both loved and hated following Yolande in her excruciatingly long journey to safety in this beautifully written memoir. As someone who knew too little about the genocide against the Tutsi, reading it made me want to understand how such an abhorrent event could ever come about. This text is an intense, but exceptional, introduction to the history of the genocide, and I would recommend it to everyone. The 2019 English translation is skillfully executed and finally gives the English-speaking world access to Yolande Mukagasana’s memoir, originally published in French more than two decades ago.” — Kiera Fields, Africa in Words