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The riveting life story of Paul Rusesabagina?the man whose heroism inspired the film Hotel Rwanda
Viking
April 2006
224 pages ISBN: 0670037524 Hardcover
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Non-Fiction Memoir
As his country was being torn apart by violence during the Rwandan genocide of 1994, hotel manager Paul Rusesabaginaβthe "Oskar Schindler of Africa"βrefused to bow to the madness that surrounded him. Confronting killers with a combination of diplomacy, flattery, and deception, he offered shelter to more than twelve thousand members of the Tutsi clan and Hutu moderates, while homicidal mobs raged outside with machetes. An Ordinary Man explores what the Academy Award-nominated film Hotel Rwanda could not: the inner life of the man who became one of the most prominent public faces of that terrible conflict. Rusesabagina tells for the first time the full story of his lifeβgrowing up as the son of a rural farmer, the child of a mixed marriage, his extraordinary career path which led him to become the first Rwandan manager of the Belgian-owned Hotel Milles Collinesβall of which contributed to his heroic actions in the face of such horror. He will also bring the reader inside the hotel for those one hundred terrible days depicted in the film, relating the anguish of those who watched as their loved ones were hacked to pieces and the betrayal that he felt as a result of the UNβs refusal to help at this time of crisis. Including never-before-reported details of the Rwandan genocide, An Ordinary Man is sure to become a classic of tolerance literature, joining such books as Thomas Keneallyβs Schindlerβs List, Nelson Mandelaβs Long Walk to Freedom, and Elie Wieselβs Night. Paul Rusesabaginaβs autobiography is the story of one man who did not let fear get the better of himβa man who found within himself a vast reserve of courage and bravery, and showed the world how one "ordinary man" can become a hero.
 Media BuzzNewsHour with Jim Lehrer - April 12, 2006 Talk of the Nation - April 10, 2006 News and Notes with Ed Gordon - April 6, 2006
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