This Voice in My Heart: A Genocide Survivor's Story of Escape, Faith, and Forgiveness

In this inspirational autobiography woven with a gruesome eyewitness account, Tuhabonye recounts his maturation as a world-class runner and his survival of a Burundi massacre. Born in 1974 to a minority ethnic Tutsi family, Tuhabonye grew up in rural Burundi, his intelligence and industry aided by spectacular athletic ability. The narrative alternates between the author's life story and events on the day of the massacres. In October 1993, after a Tutsi coup ousted the Hutu president, a Hutu mob invaded Tuhabonye's high school, hacked many Tutsi students to death with machetes and forced the rest into a building that they set afire. Only the author survived. After months of painful recovery from severe burns, he regained the ability to walk and then run again, a healing process facilitated by his faith—a devout Christian, he says he forgave the murderers and praises God for sparing him. Tuhabonye joined Burundi's national team, traveled the world, fell in love and moved to the U.S., where he now lives with his wife and daughter—an uplifting ending to a simply told story of a man who persevered through hard work, luck, presence of mind and (he emphasizes) God's love. (May)