I've been a fan of the books written by Tracy Kidder since his first, The Soul of a New Machine, came out 30 years ago. That classic documents how a new computer was designed and built. He also watched a house being built, sat in a 5th grade classroom for a year, observed a small town for a year, and traveled with Dr. Paul Farmer while he worked on community health issues in Haiti, Peru, and Russia. All of them are well worth the read.
Kidder's latest is Strength in What Remains. It is the story of Deo, who grew up in Burundi and was a medical student in 1993. To jog your memory a bit, Burundi is just south of Rwanda, shared the same colonial history, and is also populated with Hutus and Tutsis. Sound familiar yet? The slaughter in Burundi started six months before it started in Rwanda -- time enough for Deo to get to Rwanda as a refugee. Deo eventually gets to New York where he slowly rebuilds his life. While at Columbia University he studies medicine, but also takes every philosophy class because he wants someone to explain what happened in his homeland.
Yes, parts of the story are gruesome. Kidder includes a thorough explanation of why the genocide happened. However, the story ends with a hopeful and uplifting chapter. Deo has survived and is now flourishing. I highly recommend it.
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