This nonfiction book follows the story of a man named Deogratias, or Deo for short, a Burundian man who survived the Rwandan genocide in the 1990's.
We meet Deo traveling with the author, Tracy Kidder, through the sites of the genocide. Deo begins thinking of the past, and then there is a flashback to his arrival in New York City. We learn more about him as a person and about his experience in Rwanda. As an immigrant in New York, life was difficult, but in Rwanda, his life was shaped by racism in Rwanda and the horrors of mass ethnic genocide.
Kidder details meeting Deo and learning the story of his survival and escape from certain death, and the story of his life as a refugee and immigrant. She says that only by meeting real people and understanding their pain can someone really appreciate the truth of a historical event. She describes Deo's conviction that without the help of kind strangers, he would have died. She tells which humans helped him and how, including the Rwandans who looked on him with sympathy and hid him from the army, and in America as well, when people helped him get on his feet.
We then learn about the genocide in particular. In her estimation, the Rwandan genocide was essentially the result of a long history of political disenfranchisement, systemic poverty, and violent propaganda. She argues that Deo is a true hero, a survivor. Deo goes on to become a student at Columbia University. Yet, his survival is not free from pain—most of his people were slain, and the world did not notice.
