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“Rever chronicles the largely unreported and cynically discounted view of the Rwandan genocide. . . . In making her case, she risks everything—her life included—to expose the crimes of Rwanda’s current brutal government. Rever’s harrowing narrative isn’t just a portrait of a tragic time; it also stands as an uncompromising prosecution of that period and its ongoing consequences. In Praise of Blood is an undeniably important story told by a remarkably brave writer.”
—2018 Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction jury citation
“I found Judi Rever’s In Praise of Blood, a re-examination of the Rwandan genocide, harrowing and illuminating.”
—Esi Edugyan, two-time Scotiabank Giller Prize–winning author of Half-Blood Blues and Washington Black, CBC Books
“In Praise of Blood explores how Washington helped obscure the full story of the genocide that devastated Rwanda during the 1990s and cover up the crimes of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), which has ruled the country ever since. . . . In Praise of Blood is the most accessible and up-to-date of these studies. . . . Kagame’s regime and its defenders have dismissed them all as propaganda . . . Rever’s account will prove difficult to challenge.”
—Helen Epstein, The New York Review of Books
“If [this book] doesn’t provoke indignation at Western support for such a despicable, criminal regime, nothing will. Indeed, apart from the outstanding documentation the book provides, its other great value is to provide insight into the process of researching it.”
—Kong Tsung-gan, Hong Kong Free Press
“Explosive. . . . Her account suggests that the Rwandan state’s narrative of the genocide is not just one-sided and simplistic, but fundamentally false.”
—Kate Cronin-Furman, The Los Angeles Review of Books
“Rever’s book . . . is expertly crafted. Riveting, though often gruesome, names names. . . . As journalism and creative writing In Praise of Blood is excellent.” —Laurie Garrett, The Lancet
“In Praise of Blood is compulsory reading for a world that has acknowledged only half the story of the Rwandan genocide. We owe a debt of gratitude to Judi Rever for risking her life to bring us the whole truth of that genocide in this great work of investigative journalism.”
—Terry Gould, winner of the CJFE Tara Singh Hayer Press Freedom Award and author of Worth Dying For and Murder Without Borders
“Clearly, this is journalism at its best. Rever’s contribution is destined to become required reading for anyone claiming competence on the Rwanda Genocide.”
—René Lemarchand, professor emeritus and author of The Dynamic of Violence in Central Africa
“[Rever] shows in great and grueling detail how Hutu women and men, children and elderly were slaughtered on a massive scale. . . . These convincing findings can no longer be ignored.”
—Filip Reyntjens, professor emeritus and author of Political Governance in Post-Genocide Rwanda
“This book is a bomb. An explosion. A tsunami. It’s one of the most difficult and disturbing books I have ever read. It’s one of the best books I have ever read. . . . History, as we all know, is written by the victors. To really understand history, it is important to listen to all who have a story to tell. Judi Rever’s book gives space to many of the people that those in charge in Kigali would rather at best, ignore, and at worst, eliminate. Those of us in the truth business have much to learn from [her].”
—David L. Smith, Project Director, Radio Ndarasan Internationale, on Goodreads
“This is an unflinching account of one of the most ruthlessly executed and cynically exploited human catastrophes of the twentieth century. If you thought you understood the genesis of the Rwandan genocide, think again. If you are confused by the origins of the ongoing carnage in the Congo and Zaire, mysterious murders in Uganda and South Africa, start reading now.”
—Linden MacIntyre, award-winning broadcast journalist and Scotiabank Giller–winning author of The Bishop’s Man
“In Praise of Blood will remain a work of reference on Rwanda for decades to come. Judi Rever exposes and meticulously documents a litany of crimes against Rwandans that forces loyal to the Rwandan President, Paul Kagame, have killed many people to conceal. We are indebted to Rever’s courageous reporting in the face of great personal risk.”
—Anjan Sundaram, journalist and author of Bad News and Stringer
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"In Praise of Blood is a courageous, powerful and meticulously documented work that counters the narrative on which Kagame’s impunity rests, resurrects the memories of countless people, and brings their stories out from the silence and the intricate machinery of fear that the Rwandan regime has worked so hard to maintain."
—Zahra Moloo, journalist and documentary filmmaker
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"Rever’s conclusions are likely to shock anyone who has accepted the “Hotel Rwanda” version of what happened during the Rwandan Genocide....her story is such a radical rewrite of what most of the world has been led to believe that it continues to meet stiff and fearful resistance. It upends the story now embedded in US foreign policy, which tells us that the US must “intervene” all over the world—in Sudan, Libya, Syria, Venezuela, and perhaps Myanmar soon—to prevent another genocide like Rwanda’s."
—Ann Garrison, journalist
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