Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust by Immaculee Ilibagiza and Steve Erwin (2006, Hardcover)

As a child, I thought I was pretty good at hiding. Because of domestic violence problems in our home, I became an expert at finding nooks and crannies to hide in. At age 9, I read The Diary of Anne Frank and often pretended that I was Anne while hiding out in the bushes, or in the dirty clothes hamper, or in the trunk of our car with cloth wadded up and shoved in the latch so that it wouldn't close all of the way. I had a little portable record player and a 45 which had Jesus Loves Me, This I know on one side and Give Said the Little Sream on the flip side. At night I would often hide in my closet with my record player quietly playing Jesus Loves over and over until I felt it was safe to come out. I believed in him and fell asleep most nights with a prayer in my heart that he would keep us safe and a bible in my arms. I was too young then to understand the reality of war. I only knew the personal war which was being fought on our home front.

Left to Tell was incredibly sad. It's hard to imagine almost a million people being murdered in three months time. Evil triumphed in Rwanda from April until July 1994 as people slaughtered one-time friends and neighbors. Imaculee's faith kept her alive while she huddled in a small bathroom with seven other women for 91 days! Her belief in jesus Christ kept her sane

How lucky I was -- my family all survived. Imaculee's parents and all but one brother died at the hands of murderers. The most important lesson she taught "me" in this book is that forgiveness is the key to freedom. She chose to purge evil from her heart and let forgiveness fill it instead. What an inspiration.

I bought this book because I had heard Immaculee Ilibagiza's speech at the Catholic Women's COnference. Immaculee had lost almost everyone she loved and all of her possessions and yet her faith grew and shines through her words.

This book is excellent. It is the story of a survivor of the Rwandan Holocaust. I was unable to put it down. The events in the story are atrocious and shocking, but the growth of Immaculee's faith is thrilling. This may be the most inspirational book I have ever read. I want to know Immaculee personally and to learn to be more like her. I want to have the strong faith and the kind of intimate relationship she has with God.

I read this with a feeling of guilt that I had not known more about the Rwandan Holocaust. I also felt angry that our government looked the other way as millions of innocent people were brutally slaughtered.

Readers' faith will be forever changed by this book.

This is such a great book that I've bought 4 copies to give away, including one to our local library. Americans find it very easy to get upset over genocide in Nazi Germany, Communist Russia, Yugoslavia, or Kuwait-Iraq, but we never paid much attention to this massacre in Rwanda. I saw this woman on a PBS TV program with Dr. Wayne Dyer, and I was touched by her story. Reading the details is even more compelling. Miraculously, she survived hiding in a bathroom for months, then learned to forgive those who killed her family. Only she and a brother who was out of the country survived. Her use of time in the bathroom to learn English is a great message of preparation for a purpose. She believes, as I do, that she was spared for a purpose. Anyone who wonders if life has a purpose should read this story. She demonstrates that she was "left to tell" the story so people never let this kind of thing happen to anyone. Prejudice and bigotry sneak into our thinking without our intending it so. Immaculee lets us see it from its roots.

After reading "Left to Tell," I immediately thanked God for not personally having to experience the evil Immaculee faced in Rwanda. I also decided that I wanted to go to Rwanda. Strange?
Immaculee's story is an awe inspiring,and often soul tugging story of not just survival but of a forgiveness that many are not able to emulate. She speaks of her country before genocide and of every day examples of the beauty of Rwanda. I could actually picture the lush, green hills of farmland, the banana groves, and her home. At the same time, her description of her town being burned, being called a cockroach, the humiliation and degradation she experienced all were so vivis as well. I kept thinking to myself,"How could she forgive those that murdered her friends, her family?" And when she has a chance for vengeance, she also turns away from that temptation as well. I openly wept, laughed, and experienced a range of emotions throughout reading this book. This should be a gift givento those with hardened hearts or an unwillingess to forgive. It makes you feel utterly humble and stupid for being upset over dirty dishes or someone cutting you off in traffic after reading this.
After reading all of Immaculee's decriptions, I found I had a new role model in Immaculee.

This is a powerful book that shows the power of God, the power of faith and the human spirit. Immaculee Ilibagiza should speak from the White House steps about the story of her life and the blindness of the world to the events her country suffered through. This is a book should be read twice to get the full impact of the story