One Thousand Hills

A heart-wrenching story of how one young boy's life was forever changed during the Rwandan genocide Agabande, Rwanda, April 1994. Life is simple but good. Pascal and his brother go to school with their friends, their parents work hard, their little sister is growing up, and on Sunday almost everyone they know goes to church to thank God for his goodness. But lately, there have been whispers and suspicious glances around town, and messages of hate on the radio, and people are leaving. . . Then, in one awful night, Pascal’s ordinary life in the land of one thousand hills is turned upside down. One Thousand Hills an important story of the awful consequences of unfettered prejudice in the modern world, written by a survivor.

In 1949, Rosamond Halsey Carr, a young fashion illustrator living in New York City, accompanied her dashing hunter-explorer husband to what was then the Belgian Congo. When the marriage fell apart, she decided to stay on in neighboring Rwanda, as the manager of a flower plantation. Land of a Thousand Hills is Carr's thrilling memoir of her life in Rwanda—a love affair with a country and a people that has spanned half a century. During those years, she has experienced everything from stalking leopards to rampaging elephants, drought, the mysterious murder of her friend Dian Fossey, and near-bankruptcy. She has chugged up the Congo River on a paddle-wheel steamboat, been serenaded by pygmies, and witnessed firsthand the collapse of colonialism. Following 1994's Hutu-Tutsi genocide, Carr turned her plantation into a shelter for the lost and orphaned children-work she continues to this day, at the age of eighty-seven.

One couple's inspiring memoir of healing a Rwandan village, raising a family near the old killing fields, and building a restaurant named Heaven. Newlyweds Josh and Alissa were at a party and received a challenge that shook them to the core: do you think you can really make a difference? Especially in a place like Rwanda, where the scars of genocide linger and poverty is rampant? While Josh worked hard bringing food and health care to the country's rural villages, Alissa was determined to put their foodie expertise to work. The couple opened Heaven, a gourmet restaurant overlooking Kigali, which became an instant success. Remarkably, they found that between helping youth marry their own local ingredients with gourmet recipes (and mix up "the best guacamole in Africa") and teaching them how to help themselves, they created much-needed jobs while showing that genocide's survivors really could work together. While first a memoir of love, adventure, and family, A Thousand Hills to Heaven also provides a remarkable view of how, through health, jobs, and economic growth, our foreign aid programs can be quickly remodeled and work to end poverty worldwide.

Before one fateful April day, Jeanne lived the life of a typical Rwandan girl. She fought with her little sister, went to school, and teased her brother. Then, in one horrifying night, everything changed. Political troubles unleashed a torrent of violence upon the Tutsi ethnic group. Jeanne’s family, all Tutsis, fled their home and tried desperately to reach safety. They—along with nearly 1 million others—did not survive. The only survivor of her family’s massacre, Jeanne witnessed unspeakable acts. But through courage, wits, and sheer force of will, she survived. Based on a true story, this haunting novel by Jeanne’s adoptive mother makes unforgettably real the events of the 1994 Rwandan genocide as one family experienced it. Jeanne’s story is a tribute to the human spirit and its capacity to heal.

A Thousand Hills: Rwanda's Rebirth and the Man Who Dreamed It is the story of Paul Kagame, a refugee who, after a generation of exile, found his way home. Learn about President Kagame, who strives to make Rwanda the first middle-income country in Africa, in a single generation. In this adventurous tale, learn about Kagame’s early fascination with Che Guevara and James Bond, his years as an intelligence agent, his training in Cuba and the United States, the way he built his secret rebel army, his bloody rebellion, and his outsized ambitions for Rwanda.

Everyone who rides through God’s creation longs for the romance John Wayne offers from the back of a Hollywood horse. However, the reality of those same folks’ ranch lives often hits them in the side of the head like the handle on a squeeze chute. The whirlwind of the modern-day cowboy life leaves seemingly little time for praying and even less time for sermons that don’t hit home. God needs to be real, and he needs to be found in the everyday, dawn-to-midnight struggles and joys of true-to-life, cow-feeding, bronc-stomping folks who live in a world where there are espresso shacks in feed-store parking lots. In The Cattle on a Thousand Hills, stories of genuine individuals who live life on the working end of a calf-puller teach lessons that only a real God can provide, set in the real world in which cowboys, horsemen, and ranch wives live. Combining true stories and life lessons with biblical wisdom, this book is at the same time humorous and poignant. Its pages will provide a look at life through God’s eyes that can be applied to anyone’s life, but especially to the folks who spend their summers cutting hay and their winters feeding it.

"...more than a page-turning narrative; it's an embrace of the Kinyarwanda greeting amahoro--'peace.'"—Oprah.com An evocative page-turner and an eye-opening meditation on the ways we survive profoundly painful memories and negotiate the complexities of love.”—Wally Lamb, author of I Know This Much is True Finalist – National Reading Group—Great Group Reads 2018 Finalist – Foreword Indies Book of the Year In 1968, a disillusioned and heartbroken Lillian Carlson left Atlanta after the assassination of Martin Luther King. She found meaning in the hearts of orphaned African children and cobbled together her own small orphanage in the Rift Valley alongside the lush forests of Rwanda. Three decades later, in New York City, Rachel Shepherd, lost and heartbroken herself, embarks on a journey to find the father who abandoned her as a young child, determined to solve the enigma of Henry Shepherd, a now-famous photographer. When an online search turns up a clue to his whereabouts, Rachel travels to Rwanda to connect with an unsuspecting and uncooperative Lillian. While Rachel tries to unravel the mystery of her father's disappearance, she finds unexpected allies in an ex-pat doctor running from his past and a young Tutsi woman who lived through a profound experience alongside her father. Set against the backdrop of a country grieving and trying to heal after a devastating civil war, follow the intertwining stories of three women who discover something unexpected: grace when there can be no forgiveness. "An intensely beautiful debut.”—Library Journal "Good choice for those seeking tales of hope . . . and it may prove popular with book clubs.”—Booklist

A riveting and powerful story of an unforgiving time, an unlikely friendship and an indestructible love