Author | Clemantine Wamariya and Elizabeth Weil |
---|---|
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Subject | Rwandan genocide, Rwandan Civil War |
Genre | Memoir |
Publisher | Doubleday Canada |
Publication date | April 24, 2018 |
Media type | |
ISBN | 9780385687003 |
The Girl Who Smiled Beads: A Story About War and What Comes After is a memoir by Clemantine Wamariya, written alongside Elizabeth Weil, published April 24, 2018 by Doubleday Canada. The memoir follows Wamariya's experience as a childhood refugee from Rwanda. The book was a New York Times best seller, [1] was critically acclaimed, and received various accolades.
The Girl Who Smiled Beads begins in Rwanda during the Rwandan Civil War, when Wamariya was six years old. Alongside her sister Claire, Wamariya fled Rwanda, spending the next six years traveling through seven African countries as refugees. In 2000, the Wamariya sisters were granted asylum in the United States, and they landed in Chicago, unsettled. Although Wamariya spoke five languages, she did not speak English, and at twelve years old, she had never attended school formally. The Girl Who Smiled Beads showcases how, even after being granted asylum, refugees often do not feel settled and struggle to find their way in a new country.
The Girl Who Smiled Beads was a New York Times best seller. [1]
The book received starred reviews from Publishers Weekly , calling it "a powerful coming-of-age story." [2] [3] It also received positive reviews from The Washington Post, [4] Star Tribune, [5] Booklist, [6] [7] Kirkus Reviews, [8] Library Journal , [9] and The Atlantic. [10] The New York Times Book Review provided a mixed review. [11] The New York Times included it in one of their "recommended books" lists. [12]
Beyond popular media outlets, The Girl Who Smiled Beads has been discussed in academic contexts, including The Lancet, [13] Roots International Journal of Multidisciplinary Researches, [14] and Journal of the Campus Read. [15] [16] [17] [18]
Year | Accolade | Result | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|
2019 | Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence | Longlist | [19] |
Alex Award | Winner | [20] | |
2018 | Goodreads Choice Award for Memoir & Autobiography | Nominee | [21] |
Washington Post Notable Nonfiction Book of 2018 | Selection | [22] | |
Kirkus Reviews' Best Biographies of 2018 | Selection | [23] |
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This book is not a conventional story about war and its aftermath; it's a powerful coming-of-age story in which a girl explores her identity in the wake of a brutal war that destroyed her family and home.
"The Girl Who Smiled Beads" is at once terrifying and life-affirming.
Memoirs by immigrants and refugees are growing in number; they are important stories that need to be told, and told in the kind of bug-and-mud-and-dysentery detail that Wamariya's is told.
Sliding easily between past and present, this memoir is a soulful, searing story about how families survive.
Not quite as attention-getting as memoirs by Ismail Beah or Scholastique Mukasonga, but a powerful record of the refugee experience all the same.
The fractured form of her own narrative—deftly toggling between her African and American odysseys—gives troubled memory its dark due. Healing does not spell an end to hurting.