Deogratias: A Tale of Rwanda

by J.P. Stassen

Overview

The 2000 winner of the Goscinny Prize for outstanding graphic novel script, this is the harrowing tale of the Tutsi genocide in Rwanda, as seen through the eyes of a boy named Deogratias.

He is an ordinary teenager, in love with a girl named Bénigne, but Deogratias is a Hutu and Bénigne is a Tutsi who dies in the genocide, and Deogratias himself plays a part in her death. As the story circles around but never depicts the terror and brutality of an entire country descending into violence, we watch Deogratias in his pursuit of Bénigne, and we see his grief and descent into madness following her death, as he comes to believe he is a dog.

Told with great artistry and intelligence, this book offers a window into a dark chapter of recent human history and exposes the West's role in the tragedy. Stassen's interweaving of the aftermath of the genocide and the events leading up to it heightens the impact of the horror, giving powerful expression to the unspeakable, indescribable experience of ordinary Hutus caught up in the violence. Difficult, beautiful, honest, and heartbreaking, this is a major work by a masterful artist.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250189646
Publisher:	First Second
Publication date:	11/06/2018
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	96
Sales rank:	539,357
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.60(h) x 0.50(d)
Age Range:	14 - 18 Years

About the Author

J. P. Stassen won the coveted Goscinny prize for Deogratias: A Tale of Rwanda, and has developed other stories that offer a window into African daily life. His artwork is remarkably distinctive and eminently readable. He lives in Rwanda with his family.

Editorial Reviews

“While Stassen's simple layout and spare images may appear static at first, the uncluttered art, reminiscent of jewel-toned woodcuts, serves to underscore the erupting brutality... the importance of the story and the heartbreaking beauty of its presentation make it an essential purchase. (Graphic novel. YA)” —Kirkus, starred review

" The lucid, sometimes-painful imagery—depicted in intense colors, with highly expressive faces—accompanying this story illustrates the ways in which the hierarchies besetting race and ethnicity, imposed by the sociopolitical climate, all come to bear on the decisions made by the characters...A graphic novel of regret riddled with inescapable grief, capturing attention from the outset, with a stinging and near-to-cathartic ending." —Kirkus

“...this book vividly shows the power of fiction to introduce fact.” —Booklist

“ Stassen is a journalist who lives in Rwanda, and his art is bold and clear, using different color palettes to seamlessly shift between before and after. There is no catharsis, only the realization that even justice turns its champion into a monster.
” —Publishers Weekly

" A masterful work with vibrant, confident art, this book will stay with and haunt its readers,” —Jennifer Feigelman, Goshen Public Library and Historical Society, NY , School Library Journal

“ This graphic novel's worldview is bleak: Deogratias is a tale with no heroes. The full-color art can be both brutal and beautiful, and is extremely effective. ” —George Galuschak, YA Libn., Montvale PL, Montvale, NJ, KLIATT

“The lust, saturated beauty of Stassen's artwork provides a stark contrast with the brutal world he's recording.” —BookPage

“ The natural world is turned upside down in this book, the subject matter brutal. Deogratias is worth a look, especially for readers who wonder about the literary value of graphic novels.” —Michigan Reading Journal

From the Publisher

2019-01-23

The impact of the Rwandan genocide through the eyes of a Hutu teenager.

Deogratias is beset with flashbacks of the war and his role in inflicting carnage. We first meet him after the bloodshed, in a bar where he meets an old friend, a white French sergeant. As the story jumps back in time, readers learn about young Deogratias' heavy drinking, which works to keep the memories of his horrific behavior at bay and enables him to convince himself that he isn't a dog—inhumane. Yet, although every drop is meant to prevent his metaphorical, and even sometimes physical, transformation into a dog, we witness how Deogratias was compelled to join the Hutu militia and murder two Tutsi friends. Running throughout is the muted narrative of the pastoral work of the white European men of the church and the ways in which they help and complicate Rwandan lives. The lucid, sometimes-painful imagery—depicted in intense colors, with highly expressive faces—accompanying this story illustrates the ways in which the hierarchies besetting race and ethnicity, imposed by the sociopolitical climate, all come to bear on the decisions made by the characters. Readers can't help but simultaneously empathize with and loathe Deogratias' decisions as his PTSD shuttles one back and forth between his reveries of past and present.

A graphic novel of regret riddled with inescapable grief, capturing attention from the outset, with a stinging and near-to-cathartic ending. (foreword) (Graphic novel. 14-18)

Kirkus Reviews

Deogratias means "thanks be to God," and it's the name of a boy coming of age in Rwanda in 1994. He is just figuring out what it means to be a man, and wrestling with the feelings he harbors toward two sisters, Apollinaria and Benina. The sisters are themselves struggling to establish their own place in society and understand the difficult decisions their mother, Venetia, has made-Apollinaria's real father is a white Catholic priest, and Venetia has been forced to leave the country in the past to save her daughters. But Deogratias is Hutu, and they are Tutsi, a simple fact that renders all of their internal battles irrelevant. This award-winning comic was originally published in Belgium in 2000 and has an introduction explaining the history leading to the Rwandan genocide. The heartbreaking power of Deogratias is how it keeps the reader distant from the atrocities by showing the trivial cruelties of everyday life before and after the genocide. Stassen is a journalist who lives in Rwanda, and his art is bold and clear, using different color palettes to seamlessly shift between before and after. There is no catharsis, only the realization that even justice turns its champion into a monster. (Apr.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly