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Winner of the Bellwether Prize, a biannual prize selected by Barbara Kingsolver and given to a novel that addresses issues of social justice, “Running the Rift,” by Naomi Beranon follows a talented young athlete in Rwanda just before the genocide in the 1990s. Jean Patrick Nkuba is a Tutsi boy whose dream is to go to the Olympics and represent the country he and his family have loved for generations.  

Civil unrest between the governing Hutus and the Rwandan Patriotic Force, a Tutsi-led army, escalates as Jean Patrick comes very close to realizing his dreams. Suffering the fatal loss of friends and family, the young athlete becomes a puppet for each side. After falling in love with a beautiful woman who is an anti-government activist, the promising runner is forced into a complicated web of political posturing with dire results. Jean Patrick finds that representing a country on the brink of a civil war to the broader world creates so many layers of distrust and bullying that his only recourse is to run far away from his dream in order to survive.  

Drawing on her experiences teaching and volunteering in Rwanda, Beranon tells of a horrendous tragedy even as she evokes the goodness of the human spirit. This powerful novel is the kind of book that profoundly illustrates a depth of human experience that most of us know only through the headlines.  

Review by Sarah Bagby

Running the Rift (Hardcover)

By Naomi Benaron

$24.95

ISBN-13: 9781616200428
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 days
Published: Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 1/2012

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