Praised by Toni Morrison, the book marks the debut of Boubacar Boris Diop in Brazil. With a strong and concise text, the narrative tells the story of the 1994 massacre through characters who were directly or indirectly involved in the traumatic events, presenting a complex vision of the genocide.
In addition to the title of the book, Murambi is the site of the massacre of around 50,000 Tutsis gathered by authorities who claimed that all would be saved by French troops. Today the region is home to a memorial with thousands of bones of these victims, but in the novel it is the birthplace of Cornelius Uvimana, the protagonist who returns to Rwanda to understand the mysteries that led a large part of his family to death.
The cover is a reference to a scene in the book in which the main character hears his uncle talk about a specific image that marked him, in addition to highlighting the opposition reinforced by Belgian colonialism in the African country.
