A Sunday at the Pool in Kigali

A Sunday at the Pool in Kigaliis a moving, passionate love story set amid the turmoil and terror of Rwanda's genocide. All manner of Kigali residents pass their time by the pool of the Mille-Collines hotel: aid workers, Rwandan bourgeoisie, expatriates, UN peacekeepers, prostitutes. Keeping a watchful eye is Bernard Valcourt, a jaded foreign journalist, but his closest attention is devoted to Gentille, a hotel waitress with the slender, elegant build of a Tutsi. As they slip into an intense, improbable affair, the delicately balanced world around themalready devastated by AIDSerupts in a Hutu-led genocide against the Tutsi people. Valcourt's efforts to spirit Gentille to safety end in their separation. It will be months before he learns of his lover's shocking fate. From the Trade Paperback edition.

Gil Courtemanche is a well-respected journalist specializing in international and third world politics, and the author of several works of non-fiction in French including <i>Québec </i>and <i>Nouvelles douces colères</i>. His journalism in print and film has taken him to various war-torn countries including Lebanon and Haiti. He has worked in politics and journalism since the 1960s, and is also one of the writers of <i>Moi et l’Autre</i>, Quebec’s most successful sitcom. <br><br>“Very early I recognised that some things you could say in songs… some things you could say on radio and some things you could say in writing. So there are a lot of tools to do the same thing, which is being a witness and telling.” Courtemanche was first sent to Kigali by his newspaper in 1