Inside the Hotel Rwanda

The Surprising True Story…and Why It Matters Today

By: Edouard Kayihura, Kerry Zukus

Narrated by: Mirron Willis, Rosalind Ashford

Length: 10 hrs and 48 mins

Publisher's summary

In 2004, the Academy Award-nominated movie Hotel Rwanda lionized hotel manager Paul Rusesabagina for single-handedly saving the lives of all who sought refuge in the Hotel des Mille Collines during Rwanda’s genocide against the Tutsi in 1994. Because of the film, the real-life Rusesabagina has been compared to Oskar Schindler, but unbeknownst to the public, the hotel’s refugees do not endorse Rusesabagina’s version of the events.

In the wake of Hotel Rwanda’s international success, Rusesabagina is one of the most well-known Rwandans and now the smiling face of the very Hutu Power groups who drove the genocide. He is accused by the Rwandan prosecutor general of being a genocide negationist and funding the terrorist group Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR).

For the first time, learn what really happened inside the walls of Hotel des Mille Collines.

In Inside the Hotel Rwanda, survivor Edouard Kayihura tells his own personal story of what life was really like during those harrowing days within the walls of that infamous hotel and offers the testimonies of others who survived there, from Hutu and Tutsi to UN peacekeepers. Kayihura writes of a divided society and his journey to the place he believed would be safe from slaughter.

The book exposes the Hollywood hero of the film Hotel Rwanda, Paul Rusesabagina, as a profiteering and politically ambitious Hutu Power sympathizer who extorted money from those who sought refuge, threatening to send those who did not pay to the génocidaires, despite pleas from the hotel’s corporate ownership to stop.

Inside the Hotel Rwanda is at once a memoir, a critical deconstruction of a heralded Hollywood movie alleged to be factual, and a political analysis aimed at exposing a falsely created hero using his fame to be a political force, spouting the same ethnic apartheid that caused the genocide two decades ago.

Kayihura’s Inside the Hotel Rwanda offers an honest and unflinching first-hand account of the reality of life inside the hotel, exposing the man who exploited refugees and shedding much-needed light on the plight of his victims.

©2014 Edouard Kayihura and Kerry Zukus (P)2014 Audible Inc.

This just real

I kind of knew the movie was not telling the whole truth about what happened. But the movie did bring out what was happened there

Bitter, Bitter, Informative, Detailed, Bitter

What did you like best about Inside the Hotel Rwanda? What did you like least?

The first chunk and the last chunk just hack at Paul Rusesabegina personally. The story-teller is far too intelligent and interesting to resort to numerous conclusions undermining the better-known's character. I nearly stopped listening after the first hour or so did little besides sound like a jealous rant, but then it got good--really good--in parts great--only to lapse back into tirades on his alter ego's success. Much of the ugly side may be true, but my intention was to learn about Rwanda, not to sort out who was more honest and who was merely bitter.

What could Edouard Kayihura and Kerry Zukus have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

State the facts. Don't oversimplify the intentions of a complex person in a complicated situation. Stick to your own story. These authors reduce the hero of An Ordinary Man to a selfish, self-seeking exaggerator of Homeric proportions. I can deal with exposing aspects of his character that Hollywood bypassed, but having read An Ordinary Man numerous times, never once did I get the impression that the subject of Kayihura's analysis was making himself out to be a saint. In fact, it was clear to me that he was ashamed of the measures to which he had to resort in order to help people.

Which character – as performed by Mirron Willis and Rosalind Ashford – was your favorite?

I like the narrator when he talks about himself, his friends, his painful experiences. He can be a wonderful man deserving of his own movie. He was too intelligent to oversimplify someone else's intentions.

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

Definitely.

#GetWoke #TakeAction

If you've ever seen the movie Hotel Rwanda, you must read this book! While I was guilty of thinking of it as a true story, or even based on a true story, the movie has given power to an illegitimate human! This book not only opened my eyes to the long-standing discriminative practices against Tutis leading up to the genocide but also the continuing conflicts in surrounding countries with the Hutu Power, who Paul Rusesabagina vocally supports!

Possibly true details become a rant

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

The genocide in Rwanda is still almost incomprehensible as an act of pure evil and the resilience of those left behind in the aftermath has allowed the country to rebuild to an amazing extent. This particular book seems to be a continual rant about how Paul Rusesabagina has profited or been given credit for things that he should not have been credit for. The author obviously has first hand knowledge of this terrible occurrence, and has finally had his say, but I found the story to almost rise to the level of a diatribe against one man rather than against the entire group of Hutus that perpetuated the killings.

What could Edouard Kayihura and Kerry Zukus have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

This is not an enjoyable subject in any way, read for information and insight more than enjoyment.

Did Inside the Hotel Rwanda inspire you to do anything?

To continue to be amazed at the resiliency of the human heart - individually and collectively - as the Tusti people who returned to their neighborhoods made such sacrifices to forgive the neighbors who slaughtered their families. How do people start again after living through these atrocities and how can this be prevented in the future - or even now as it is in places such as the Sudan?

I respect the story but it gets a little harpy.

Incredible insight; full of info that should be widely known. I’m ashamed that I didn’t know more about this tragic massacre before finding this book.

That being said, I started checking how much time was left, about halfway through.

Heatbreakingly bad

Nothing could overcome the reader nor the egoism of the writer. I oearned a little more than I knew about the history of this beautiful country, but I do not really trust the author