''The Barefoot Woman'' (french: La femme aux pieds nus) is a 2008 memoir by

Scholastique Mukasonga Scholastique Mukasonga (born 1956) is a French- Rwandan author born in the former Gikongoro province of Rwanda. In 2012, She won the prix Renaudot and the prix Ahmadou-Kourouma for her book '' Our Lady of the Nile.'' In addition to being a fi ...

, published by Éditions Gallimard. It was translated into English by Jordan Stump and released in that language in 2018, with publication by

Penguin Random House Penguin Random House LLC is an Anglo-American multinational corporation, multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate publishing company formed on July 1, 2013, from the merger of Penguin Group and Random House. On April 2, 2020, Bertels ...

. The book concerns Mukasonga's mother. It has some discussion of the

Rwandan genocide The Rwandan genocide occurred between 7 April and 15 July 1994 during the Rwandan Civil War. During this period of around 100 days, members of the Tutsi minority ethnic group, as well as some moderate Hutu and Twa, were killed by armed Hutu ...

. Parul Sehgul of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' wrote that in comparison to ''

Cockroaches Cockroaches (or roaches) are a paraphyletic group of insects belonging to Blattodea, containing all members of the group except termites. About 30 cockroach species out of 4,600 are associated with human habitats. Some species are well-known a ...

'', ''The Barefoot Woman'' is "gentler, in some ways" and that its "gaze ..is softer".

The book lists Mukasonga's memories based on various topics.

Reception

Sehgul stated that ''The Barefoot Woman'' "powerfully continues the tradition of women’s work it so lovingly recounts."

Publishers Weekly ''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of B ...

described it as "beautiful and elegiac", and strongly recommended the book as it gave it a star.

References

External links

*
The Barefoot Woman
' -

*
La femme aux pieds nus
' - Éditions Gallimard 2008 non-fiction books French memoirs Books about Rwanda {{Memoir-stub

Contents

Reception

References

External links