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2005 Nominated

A Sunday at the Pool in Kigali

Gil Courtemanche

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ABOUT
THE BOOK

The swimming pool of the Mille-Collines hotel is a magnet for an eclectic group of Kigali residents: aid workers, Rwandan bourgeoisie, expatriates and prostitutes. Among them is the hotel waitress Gentille, a beautiful Hutu often mistaken for a Tutsi, who has long been admired by Bernard Valcourt, a Canadian journalist. As the two slide into a love affair, civil unrest in Rwanda makes insidious progress, engulfing the people around the pool in the chaos of civil war.
This novel confronts the nightmare that ravaged Rwanda in April 1994, when the Hutu-led government orchestrated genocide against the Tutsi people.

Gil Courtemanche

ABOUT
THE AUTHOR Gil
Courtemanche

Gil Courtemanche (1943-2011) was born in Montreal and became a journalist in 1962, with Radio-Canada. He created, edited and hosted a variety of radio and tv journalism programmes and helped found Le Jour. His TV films included works on the Rwandan genocide and on AIDS in Africa, both of which feature in his first novel, Un dimanche a la piscine a Kigali (2000), which was made into a film, and published as A Sunday at the Pool in Kigali by Canongate. The World, the Lizard and Me, translated from Québécois, was released by Seren in 2015.

Gil Courtemanche (1943-2011) was born in Montreal and became a journalist in 1962, with Radio-Canada. He created, edited and hosted a variety of radio and tv journalism programmes and helped found Le Jour. His TV films included works on the Rwandan genocide and on AIDS in Africa, both of which feature in his first novel, Un dimanche a la piscine a Kigali (2000), which was made into a film, and published as A Sunday at the Pool in Kigali by Canongate. The World, the Lizard and Me, translated from Québécois, was released by Seren in 2015.

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ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Date published
22/11/2024
Country
Canada
Original Language
French
Author
Gil Courtemanche
Publisher
Knopf Canada, Alfred A. Knopf
Nominating Library
Edmonton Public Library - Canada, Bibliothèques Municipales - Switzerland, Bibliothèques de Montréal / Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec - Canada

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