Jacaranda

A Staged Reading and Conversation with Gaël Faye
Reading in French and English. Conversation in French

Join us for an intimate evening with acclaimed Rwandan-French novelist and hip-hop artist Gaël Faye as he presents his award-winning novel, Jacaranda—a rich, deeply felt story of family, memory, and healing in post-genocide Rwanda.

The event will feature a bilingual staged reading of excerpts from Jacaranda in French and English, performed by Gaël Faye and Brooke Habit (PhD Candidate in French at Columbia University), featuring Sarah Ardizzone’s translation (Penguin Random House). The reading will be followed by a conversation in French with the author, exploring the creative process, intergenerational memory, and history.

About the book:

“There is magic in Gaël Faye’s writing . . . This book is unforgettable.” —Leïla Slimani, internationally bestselling author of The Perfect Nanny

“Gaël Faye’s talent is breathtaking.” —Imbolo Mbue, author of Behold the Dreamers

Milan—the twelve-year-old son of a French father and a Rwandan mother—blames flunking his exams on the emotional toll of the genocide in his mother’s homeland. In truth, his mother never talks about Rwanda; the violence is an abstraction that only reaches their French suburb through television broadcasts. That is, until Milan meets Claude, a small boy with a bandaged head whom Milan’s mother introduces as a cousin who has come to France seeking medical treatment. Milan embraces him as the brother he’s always wanted—until, one day, Claude is sent back to Rwanda without warning, leaving him heartbroken and confused.

Four years later, the boys reunite as teenagers when Milan visits Rwanda for the first time with his mother in the wake of her divorce and discovers a more fractured and vibrant community than he could have imagined. But the trip raises more questions for him than it answers—about family, the war, and its aftershocks. Over the course of many years, Milan will return to Rwanda again and again, compelled to unearth the secrets that have taken root in the shadows of long silences, confront the past, and imagine a new future.

About the author: 

Gaël Faye was born in Burundi and now lives in Rwanda. His debut novel, Small Country, received thirteen literary awards, including the Prix Goncourt des Lycéens. It has been translated into forty languages and adapted for film, theatre, and graphic novel. In 2024, his second novel, Jacaranda, was awarded the Prix Renaudot and Choix Goncourt in 28 countries. An author, songwriter and hip-hop artist with nearly 1 million monthly listeners on Spotify, he has also released several music albums, including Pili Pili sur un croissant au beurre (2013), Rythme et botanique (2017), Des fleurs (2018), Lundi méchant (2020), and Mauve Jacaranda (2022).

This event is co-sponsored by Institute of African Studies, Institute of Comparative Literature and Society, Alliance Program, French Cultural Society, and the Maison Française at Columbia University.