''Small Country'' (French: ''Petit pays'') is a novel set in Burundi by the Franco-Rwandan rapper, songwriter and novelist,

Gaël Faye Gaël Faye (born 6 August 1982) is a Rwanda, Rwandan-France, French singer, rapper, and writer. Personal life Faye was born in Bujumbura, Burundi of a French father and Rwandan mother. He immigrated to France at the age of 13, escaping from the ...

. It was first published in France in August 2016 by Grasset, and has since been translated into 36 languages.

Summary

Set in

Burundi Burundi (, ), officially the Republic of Burundi ( rn, Repuburika y’Uburundi ; Swahili language, Swahili: ''Jamuhuri ya Burundi''; French language, French: ''République du Burundi'' ), is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley at the ...

and

Rwanda Rwanda (; rw, u Rwanda ), officially the Republic of Rwanda, is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley of Central Africa, where the African Great Lakes region and Southeast Africa converge. Located a few degrees south of the Equator ...

from 1993 onwards, the novel is narrated by ten-year-old Gaby, who lives with his French father and Rwandan mother in an ''

impasse A bargaining impasse occurs when the two sides negotiating an agreement are unable to reach an agreement and become deadlocked. An impasse is almost invariably mutually harmful, either as a result of direct action which may be taken such as a st ...

'' in a comfortable district of

Bujumbura Bujumbura (; ), formerly Usumbura, is the economic capital, largest city and main port of Burundi. It ships most of the country's chief export, coffee, as well as cotton and tin ore. Bujumbura was formerly the country's normal capital. In late ...

. Gabriel's sheltered upbringing leaves him oblivious to the increasing tensions between the Hutu majority and the Tutsi minority (to which he, through his mother, belongs). As neighbouring Rwanda faces the outbreak of

civil war A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

and

genocide Genocide is the intentional destruction of a people—usually defined as an ethnic, national, racial, or religious group—in whole or in part. Raphael Lemkin coined the term in 1944, combining the Greek word (, "race, people") with the Latin ...

, which spill over into Burundi, the innocence of Gaby and his group of friends is brutally shattered. The novel is based on Gaël Faye's own experiences growing up in Burundi during this period; the author has, however, stressed that it is not strictly autobiographical.

Reception

The novel was very well-received upon its publication in France, selling 700,000 copies. It was shortlisted for the

Prix Goncourt The Prix Goncourt (french: Le prix Goncourt, , ''The Goncourt Prize'') is a prize in French literature, given by the académie Goncourt to the author of "the best and most imaginative prose work of the year". The prize carries a symbolic reward o ...

in 2016, as well as for awards by

Fémina Fémina is an Argentine folk and fusion trio from San Martín de los Andes, Argentina. Career In 2004, friends Clara Miglioli and Sofía "Toti" Trucco formed Fémina in San Martín de los Andes, Argentina. The trio's name Fémina means female ...

Médicis The House of Medici ( , ) was an Italian banking family and political dynasty that first began to gather prominence under Cosimo de' Medici, in the Republic of Florence during the first half of the 15th century. The family originated in the Muge ...

, Interallié, the

Académie française An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary education, secondary or tertiary education, tertiary higher education, higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membershi ...

and Renaudot. In the same year, it won the

prix Goncourt des lycéens The Prix Goncourt des Lycéens is a French literary award created in 1987 as a sort of younger sibling of Prix Goncourt, a prestigious prize for French language literature. The ten members of the Académie Goncourt select twelve literary works as ...

, chosen by ''lycée'' students (roughly equivalent to high-school age). An English translation, ''Small Country'', was produced by

Sarah Ardizzone Sarah Ardizzone (née Adams) is a literary translator, working from French to English. She has won the Marsh Award for Children's Literature in Translation two times (2005 and 2009), and the Scott-Moncrieff Prize once in 2007. Career Ardizzone ...

and published in 2018. It also received favourable reviews in translation, and was longlisted for the 2019 Aspen Words Literary Prize and the 2019 Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Non-Fiction. In April 2019 it was shortlisted for the 2019 Albertine Prize. Writing in ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'', Anthony Cummins called the work "a sharp shock of a novel"; he also, however, expressed disappointment at certain elements of Faye's use of characters, noting that "Faye seems to squander the dramatic potential that a child's point of view might bring." The novel has also been translated into Italian, Serbian, Portuguese and into the official language of Burundi,

Kirundi Kirundi, also known as Rundi, is a Bantu language spoken by some 9 million people in Burundi and adjacent parts of Rwanda, Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, as well as in Kenya. It is the official language of Burundi. Kiru ...

Film adaptation

In 2020, the novel was adapted into the film '' Small Country: An African Childhood'', directed by

Éric Barbier Éric Barbier (born 29 June 1960 in Aix-en-Provence) is a French film director and screenwriter. Filmography Actor * 1994: '' Le Péril jeune'' by Cédric Klapisch Cédric Klapisch ( ; born 4 September 1961) is a French film director, scr ...

References

{{Authority control 2016 French novels Novels set in Rwanda Éditions Grasset books French novels adapted into films Novels set in Burundi