Naomi Benaron’s debut novel follows Rwandan Jean Patrick Nkuba, a Tutsi, from his earliest dreams of becoming his country’s first Olympic medal contender in track, to the moment when he finds himself facing a mob of killers, with no choice but to vault over a wall and run for his life. In the years preceding the genocide, Jean Patrick’s world becomes ever more violent and restrictive, spinning toward the inevitable moment when the killing begins and he must leave behind the woman and country he loves. Benaron interweaves Rwanda’s politics, the beauty of its landscape, and the yearning and dedication of Jean Patrick himself into a tremendously moving story of the country and the character’s unraveling and tentative new beginning.

NAOMI BENARON holds an MFA and a Master of Science degree in earth sciences, is a certified orthopedic massage therapist and an Ironman triathlete, teaches online for the UCLA Extension Writers’ Program, and works with the Afghan Women’s Writing Project online and with African refugees in Arizona. She has won a number of literary prizes for her work, including the G.S. Sharat Chandra Prize for Short Fiction, and the Lorian Hemingway Short Story Competition.

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