The Girl Who Smiled Beads

A Story of War and What Comes After

De: Clemantine Wamariya, Elizabeth Weil

Narrado por: Robin Miles

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “The plot provided by the universe was filled with starvation, war and rape. I would not—could not—live in that tale.”

Clemantine Wamariya was six years old when her mother and father began to speak in whispers, when neighbors began to disappear, and when she heard the loud, ugly sounds her brother said were thunder. In 1994, she and her fifteen-year-old sister, Claire, fled the Rwandan massacre and spent the next six years migrating through seven African countries, searching for safety—perpetually hungry, imprisoned and abused, enduring and escaping refugee camps, finding unexpected kindness, witnessing inhuman cruelty. They did not know whether their parents were dead or alive.

When Clemantine was twelve, she and her sister were granted refugee status in the United States; there, in Chicago, their lives diverged. Though their bond remained unbreakable, Claire, who had for so long protected and provided for Clemantine, was a single mother struggling to make ends meet, while Clemantine was taken in by a family who raised her as their own. She seemed to live the American dream: attending private school, taking up cheerleading, and, ultimately, graduating from Yale. Yet the years of being treated as less than human, of going hungry and seeing death, could not be erased. She felt at the same time six years old and one hundred years old.

In The Girl Who Smiled Beads, Clemantine provokes us to look beyond the label of “victim” and recognize the power of the imagination to transcend even the most profound injuries and aftershocks. Devastating yet beautiful, and bracingly original, it is a powerful testament to her commitment to constructing a life on her own terms.

Great Book

Loved it, touched every emotion. One of the best books I have listened to in a long time. Shows how there should be more love and understanding of each other.

We are all created equal.

beautiful and worthy

I did struggle a bit but it was not the narrator. it is my own shame of being me. it is an accountable story line of Clemantine and her truth and wanting to fight anyone who seems to care. Noone really cares, everyone cares. What do we xare about truly ? It is a most difficult poignant necessary truth of beauty. As I say I am broken and beautiful.

Powerful

This is the first memoir I've read by a refugee. It's an engaging rendering of how a young woman experienced the Rwandan genocide, refugee camps, and how she went about putting her life back together afterward. The book also offers a very poignant analysis about the perils of patriarchy and the lingering impact of colonialism. Without ever using psychological terms, the author illuminates the residual and lingering impacts of trauma. It helped me appreciate the idea that all fires aren't seen, and often times even smoke can't be detected.

such a profound novel

just finished listening and the epilogue has me crying my eyes out. finishing this book is like saying goodbye to a dear friend.

Moving Story

beautiful story of life and innate resilience. i learned so much about history, too.