Left to Tell: Uncovering Hope and Faith in the Midst of the Rwandan Genocide

Lrn2Bwise: This book. This book is incredible, heart breaking, edge of the seat. Couldn't put it down. Good read.

United States on Oct 14, 2023

Angela Ausmus-Gill: This book was more amazing than I thought it would be! It’s well written, thought provoking, emotional, inspirational. I want to love and forgive like Immaculee.

United States on Sep 03, 2023

Troy Rickertsen: Not since watching Passion of the Christ have I watched or read something so powerful and heart changing. The spirit and faith of Immaculee amazed me time and again, throughout the retelling of her story, and the genocide that occurred in Rwanda. Her forgiveness towards those who took her family’s lives moved me very deeply.

United States on Aug 19, 2023

Just Me: This story is indeed from the perspective of the writer. It is her personal experience living the horror of one of the worlds bloodiest holocaust ever recorded. Estimated 1,000,000 people were murdered in a short 3 month period. Her account is heart wrenching and at times difficult to understand the rampant demonic evil that overtook a beautiful place. It was all in the name of power and those that started it have blood on their hands

Pay no attention to the reviews that diminish her plight or the rationale of how things happened. Ive tried to understand how anyone could arrive at a conclusion other than what is being shared. Here are the ridiculous statements to ignore completely.

1. How did she know how many were in the room hunting her if she could not see them?

Simple...it was a guess based on extreme fear but she could also hear the voices and was able to look out the small window outside. Those same people were friends and neighbors and people she grew up with.
Its not meant to be an accurate number.

2. How did they all fit in the small bathroom and then a mattress was added?

Read the book it says clearly that they were on top of each...

United States on May 04, 2023

bookworm23: I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book so much that I couldn't put it down. A must read and highly recommend.

United Kingdom on Feb 13, 2023

IB: I liked that although it’s a very sad story about surviving a genocide it is most inspiring and uplifting. A testament to really having faith and hope in God and power of positive thinking. This story leaves me wanting to be a better human being, to be more forgiving even when the atrocities are beyond my comprehension and most importantly to focus on connecting with God, my creator through prayer, faith and hope.
Fantastic easy read. This is a book that everyone needs to read especially in light of the current political and international pandemic crisis.

Canada on Jun 27, 2021

Noreen Minifie: this story was an amazing act of faith in God and His providence during very difficult times the importance of forgiveness rang through and was a great example for me. It reinforced for me also the importance of letting go after i forgive and to move on trusting in God's graces and providence for my life. It is a testimony that after very horrible life's circumstances I can live again in joy and peace in the arms of God who really cares and has my best interests at heart. The lesson of obedience hit home with me through out the book as well, something I am not always faithful to do.. I am recommending this book to my friends. I was reminded also of the story the Diary of Ann Frank also Corrie Ten Booms testimony.

Canada on Apr 26, 2015

JordanJasper: Immaculee Ilibagiza was the only daughter of upstanding, well-educated, charitable, civic-minded and devout Catholic parents living in the Kibuye countryside of Rwanda when an apocalyptic wave of ethnic "cleansing" was unleashed by simmering socio-political forces and government encouragement/complicity in 1994. Being members of the minority Tutsi tribe, Immaculee and her wonderful parents, brothers, neighbors and friends were the targets of the majority Hutu tribespeople who sought to wipe their countrymen out to the very last. Neighbor turned against neighbor, "friend" against friend and, in 100 days' time, 1,000,000 human beings were butchered without mercy. Men, women, children and infants were hacked to death or shot (but mostly hacked to death) and rivers of blood ran red as the bodies were piled into rotting towers of gore or thrown to dogs. Genocide was taking place as the streets and towns of Rwanda were patrolled by roving packs of savage citizens armed with machetes. In a last-ditch effort at survival, Immaculee was sent by her father to hide in a neighbor's house, where she was crammed into a 4ft. X 3ft. bathroom hidden behind a wardrobe for 91 days with six other...

United States on Jul 02, 2013

T, Holmes: If you have a heart filled with compassion and love, congratulations, this book is for you.

I read this book as soon as it was delivered. I couldn't put it down. I had heard of this ladies ordeal via you-tube. I had seen countless videos of the holocaust and was moved to my core by the atrocities that occurred. I wanted to know why this happened? What drove neighbours and friends to kill each other, in such horrific manners? Once I read this book, I understood.

Imaculees' tale is just one of countless stories that should be told, but thankfully (for me, at least) she kept focused on staying alive so she could get this essential message across, to as many as want to listen. One thing that stood out for me was her undying faith, she knew that she had a purpose to fulfill after the madness was over. It was this that provided us with this book and for that i am truly thankful. It is a graphic and concise account of what happened to her throughout the holocaust and at times made me question my own potential as a human being. It tells of how her somewhat ordinary life changed over night and how she had to leave her family behind, knowing that she may never see them again....

United Kingdom on Apr 25, 2013

Joanne: What an amazing book!

Or maybe it is just an amazing story, the hideous inhumanity that prejudice can drive us to coupled by incredible forgiveness. I read the whole book in 24 hours straight - something that I haven't done in years.

Immaculee is from a loving, respected Catholic family in a small town in the west of Rwanda. A family who believed your tribal background shouldn't matter in a country where history and particularly Belgian colonial rule had made it of paramount importance.

It is the story of her childhood and adolescence in Rwanda before the unbelievable genocide that was encouraged by the government and allowed to run unchecked by the rest of the world. It is Immaculee's story of God's love, strength and revelation to her in situations that none of us ever want to imagine, the brutal murder of family and friends by their own friends and neighbours and yet it is not an overtly religious book.

Although in a part of the world of which I have no experience it was so easy to imagine all the people as real people that you could know and that is as it is, they are or were real people.

United Kingdom on Sep 30, 2007