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Die Stummen Schreie (2010)

by Elisabeth Combres(Favorite Author)

3.46 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

3414821192 (ISBN13: 9783414821195)

languge

English

genre

Historical Fiction

publisher

Boje

review 1: Emma is a five-year-old, Tutsi girl living with her mother at the time of a civil war in Rwanda. The genocide starts suddenly, and Emma and her mother are trapped when Hutus come to her door to kill them. She huddles behind a couch listening to grisly sounds of her mother being hacked to death with machetes. At first she is crippled with the hopelessness of not having anyone left in the world, total desolation. But she cannot betray her mother’s last request to her, “…you must not die Emma!” She wanders the country along with other refugees, just narrowly avoiding the bloodthirsty Hutus. After surviving near starvation and dehydration she is taken in by an elderly Hutu woman. Yes, Hutu. Nine years later Emma has still not fully recovered from her experiences bac... morek in 1994. Her life has been on hold since the genocide because she cannot seem to make sense of this horrific event. Her nights are filled with nightmares of her mother’s death, and her last words. There is an agonizing amount of emotions like guilt, panicky terror, anger, loneliness, and confusion that overwhelm her when she tries to face her memories. So she chooses to just try to ignore them. However when the main culprits of the genocide are brought to justice, it becomes inescapable. Her mind attacks her with crippling flash backs that last for hours. It takes her nearly till the end of the book to accept that she couldn’t do much to help her mother or the millions of other victims. With the help of Ndoli, a fellow survivor, and a man who councils child, genocide victims, she faces and sorts through her problems. Most of the story is bleak and heartbreaking, but the end gives a glimmer of hope. It is a good example of how things could always be worse, and that just because things are terrible in the present it doesn't mean that they always will be. It ends abruptly with her visiting the home her and her mother lived in during the genocide, but does give good closure to the story and the main character. Through Emma going back to the scene of the death she can release the hurt and finally move on. Emma’s story is fictional but speaks truth that all survivors of this genocide can relate to. It’s an eye opener to anyone who doesn’t know the full extent of the events that occurred in April 1994, and allows us to feel and understand the emotions of the survivors. The book is itself a way of combating the prejudice the Hutus showed. Emma feels emotions that we all understand: hate, remorse, guilt, fear etc. People who read this book will come away more knowledgeable, and empathetic to all kinds of people, not just genocide survivors. Over all the writing was mediocre but the message and themes were strong, I give it 3.5 out of 5 stars.
review 2: Emma, a young girl, sits hiding behind a chair, her legs tucked under her, not moving, or daring to make a sound. As she sits there, she is tormented by the all too realistic sounds of her mother being beaten to death by Hutu extremists. After it is all over and the men leave, young Emma is not motivated to move at all. She has nothing left, no family. She has nothing but her mother’s words, “You must not die Emma!” As Emma tried to survive, she was forced to sleep in bushes, go for many days without food, and was forced to walk through the bodies of the Tutsi people who had been mercilessly and brutally slaughtered. Eventually, she finds comfort in a Hutu woman, willing to take her in.Yes, Hutu.As Emma grows older, although the woman does not speak often, she forms a more mother daughter bond with the woman, but there is just one problem. Her memories.Emma is haunted by the screams and memories of her mother being beaten to death, and even after it is all over, they still come back to haunt her. As people, many do not have to go through anything like the Rwandan Genocide. We do not have to hear to memories of our family being killed by people we do not even know. And the fact that anyone would have to is beyond my worst imagination.These memories only haunt her more when a group of Hutus being accused ride through town. So how does this affect her? Well, as she listens to them speaking, she recognizes the voice of one of the men. He was one of the men who had killed her mother. This story shows us just how strong a person can be, and that, through companionship and friends, you can learn to push through a disaster, and learn to heal.Although this book is fiction, the author Elisabeth Combres, interviewed survivors and created Emma as a representation of them. The emotions and struggles that are portrayed through Emma, serve as a continued reminder of how the World could have, SHOULD have, done something, but did not.I started this book as just another book that I would read for my research project, soon to be tossed into the return box in our school library. But as I read more, I found a new interest in the events of the Genocide, and just how badly it affected the survivors. Also, this book not only opened my eyes, but also changed my biased opinion that all Hutus had participated. I am happy that I read this book, and give it a five out of five for not only sparking my newfound interest, but for showing me the deep emotional and mental problems a survivor will go through. Cheers. less

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