"Living with the Knife: Survivors, Executioners and the Memory of the Rwandan Genocide" Author: [France] Jean Hartzfield / Publisher: Beijing Daily Press

★ A classic work about the Rwandan genocide, which has won numerous international awards and praise from readers

★ Continuing 14 years of field investigation, focusing on the first scene of the massacre and the aftermath

★Collect the oral statements of dozens of parties involved, and record the voices of victims and perpetrators at the same time

★ Restore the truth without any noise and face the subtle aspects of human nature

The massacre in the Rwandan town of Nyamata began at 11 a.m. on April 11, 1994, and lasted until 2 p.m. on May 14. Every day during this period, from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., Hutu militiamen and civilians massacred Tutsis on the hills of Nyamata. Of the approximately 60,000 Tutsis in the area, nearly 50,000 died under the butcher's knife.

In this massacre, the killers and the killed were not strangers to each other. They lived on the same land and were neighbors, colleagues, friends, lovers and even family members. Some Hutus had drunk and chatted with Tutsi friends the day before, but overnight, they picked up their butcher knives and organized a massacre of all Tutsis. Some Tutsis hid in swamps, woods and mountains, and fled for their lives like prey avoiding hunters every day. They ate raw food and drank dew during the day, and slept in the mud at night. They finally survived until the end of the massacre. However, when they returned to the town, they found that the executioners had not received the punishment they deserved, and they had to continue living with these Hutus as before...

What exactly happened during the genocide? Why did the Hutus massacre the Tutsis in this way? How should they continue to live after the genocide? With these questions, Hartsfield came to Rwanda and lived with the locals. After fourteen years of investigation and interviews with many survivors and perpetrators, he tried to restore the truth of the genocide from multiple perspectives and understand this human catastrophe that happened in our time.

「Expert Recommendation」

Hartsfield's unique voices force us to confront the unthinkable and the unthinkable. Understanding what really happened in Rwanda is a difficult task, but we have no right to avoid it. It is our responsibility as moral adults. Everyone should read Hartsfield's book.

—Susan Sontag

Hartsfield's harrowing account of the voices of the Rwandan genocide's killers is yet another reminder of the inhumanity to which humans are capable.

--Philip Gurevich, author of "Let Me Tell You That My Family Will Be Killed Tomorrow"

Jean Hartzfield's "Rwandan Genocide Trilogy" carefully observes and records the memories and lives of the survivors and the perpetrators of the genocide in a small town in southeastern Rwanda. The author is one of the greatest French writers of our time. Although he rarely appears in the book, his words are enough to show his great soul. This work uses subtle language and the seemingly ancient and primitive method of oral history to strip away all the disguises of human nature and reveal the most core and darkest corners.

—The New Yorker

Each account is equally heart-wrenching, each voice is unique, and in other hands they might have been a collection of scattered stories, but Hartsfield brings them together and gives them a forceful way to compel a positive response to the genocide of our time.

——Publishers Weekly