On November 4, join singer, songwriter and writer Gaël Faye as he discusses his new book Jacaranda with journalist, author, and filmmaker Peter Godwin.

A young man journeys from Paris to Rwanda to discover the truth about his family’s past in this bestselling, prize-winning novel from internationally renowned Rwandan-French novelist and hip-hop artist Gaël Faye. 

Milan—the twelve-year-old son of a French father and a Rwandan mother—blames flunking his exams on the emotional toll of the genocide in his mother’s homeland. In truth, his mother never talks about Rwanda; the violence is an abstraction that only reaches their French suburb through television broadcasts. That is, until Milan meets Claude, a small boy with a bandaged head whom Milan’s mother introduces as a cousin who has come to France seeking medical treatment. Milan embraces him as the brother he’s always wanted—until, one day, Claude is sent back to Rwanda without warning, leaving him heartbroken and confused.

Four years later, the boys reunite as teenagers when Milan visits Rwanda for the first time with his mother in the wake of her divorce and discovers a more fractured and vibrant community than he could have imagined. But the trip raises more questions for him than it answers—about family, the war, and its aftershocks. Over the course of many years, Milan will return to Rwanda again and again, compelled to unearth the secrets that have taken root in the shadows of long silences, confront the past, and imagine a new future.

Partly inspired by acclaimed author Gaël Faye’s own relationship with Rwanda and its history, Jacaranda is a rich and deeply felt portrait of a man seeking to understand his family and his nation as it heals from the unthinkable. 

Gaël Faye was born in Burundi and now lives in Rwanda. His debut novel, Small Country, received thirteen literary awards, including the Prix Goncourt des Lycéens. It has been translated into forty languages and adapted for film, theatre, and graphic novel. In 2024, his second novel, Jacaranda, was awarded the Prix Renaudot and Choix Goncourt in 28 countries. An author, songwriter and hip-hop artist with nearly 1 million monthly listeners on Spotify, he has also released several music albums, including Pili Pili sur un croissant au beurre (2013), Rythme et botanique (2017), Des fleurs (2018), Lundi méchant (2020), and Mauve Jacaranda (2022). 

Peter Godwin was born and raised in Zimbabwe. He is the author of six non-fiction books including Mukiwa, which received the George Orwell Prize and the Esquire-Apple-Waterstones award, and When a Crocodile Eats the Sun, which won the Borders Original Voices Award. His book, The Fear, was selected by the New Yorker as a best book of the year. He has taught writing at Wesleyan and Columbia, and served as President of the PENAmerican Center. He is an Orwell fellow and a Guggenheim fellow. He lives in New York City. 

This event is in English and is free. Please click here to RSVP.