Product Description

The remarkable life story of the man who inspired the film Hotel Rwanda

Readers who were moved and horrified by Hotel Rwanda will respond even more intensely to Paul Rusesabagina’s unforgettable autobiography. As Rwanda was thrown into chaos during the 1994 genocide, Rusesabagina, a hotel manager, turned the luxurious Hotel Milles Collines into a refuge for more than 1,200 Tutsi and moderate Hutu refugees, while fending off their would-be killers with a combination of diplomacy and deception. In An Ordinary Man, he tells the story of his childhood, retraces his accidental path to heroism, revisits the 100 days in which he was the only thing standing between his "guests" and a hideous death, and recounts his subsequent life as a refugee and activist.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #426710 in Books
• Published on: 2006-04-06
• Format: Bargain Price
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 224 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. For former hotel manager Paul Rusesabagina, words are the most powerful weapon in the human arsenal. For good and for evil, as was the case in the spring of 1994 in Rwanda. Over 100 days, some 800,000 people were slaughtered, most hacked to death by machete. Rusesabagina—inspiration for the movie Hotel Rwanda—used his facility with words and persuasion to save 1,268 of his fellow countrymen, turning the Belgian luxury hotel under his charge into a sanctuary from madness. Through negotiation, favor, flattery and deception, Rusesabagina managed to keep his "guests" alive another day despite the homicidal gangs just beyond the fence and the world's failure to act. Narrator Hoffman delivers those words in a stirring audio performance. With a crisp African accent, Hoffman renders each sentence with heartfelt conviction and flat-out becomes Rusesabagina. The humble hotel manager not only illuminates the machinery behind the genocide but delves into Rwanda's complex and colorful cultural history as well as his own childhood, the son of a Hutu father and Tutsi mother. Hoffman successfully draws out the understated elegance of Rusesabagina's simple and straightforward prose, lending the story added vividness. This tale of good, evil and moral responsibility winds down with Rusesabagina visiting a church outside Kigali where thousands were massacred and where a multilingual sign-cloth now pledges, "Never Again." He once more stops to consider words, the ones he worries lack true conviction—like those at the church—as well as the ones with the power to heal. For the listener, the words of Paul Rusesabagina won't soon be forgotten.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review
An extraordinary cautionary tale. -- The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Extraordinary—horrific and tragic, but also inspiring, because Rusesabagina refuses to give up his belief in the basic decency of humanity. -- The Times, London

Read this book. It will humble and inspire you. -- Sunday Telegraph, London

Rusesabagina . . . weaves his country’s history with his personal history into a rich narrative that attempts to explain the unexplainable. . . . The book’s emotional power comes from his understatement and humility. -- The Boston Globe

Rusesabagina’s story of survival amid manic slaughter is as awful as it is gripping. -- St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Review
Rusesabagina . . . weaves his country’s history with his personal history into a rich narrative that attempts to explain the unexplainable. . . . The book’s emotional power comes from his understatement and humility. (The Boston Globe)

An extraordinary cautionary tale. (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

Rusesabagina’s story of survival amid manic slaughter is as awful as it is gripping. (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)

Read this book. It will humble and inspire you. (Sunday Telegraph, London)

Extraordinary—horrific and tragic, but also inspiring, because Rusesabagina refuses to give up his belief in the basic decency of humanity. (The Times, London)

Customer Reviews

A COURAGEOUS MAN'S STORY SUPERBLY READ

Paul Rusesabagina, the inspiration for the Oscar nominated film, Hotel Rwanda, is not an ordinary man but an extraordinary one. He is the recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the National Civil rRghts Museum's 2005 Freedom Award - rightly so. During the 1994 bloodbath in Rwanda that resulted in the slaughter of some 800,000 people, he sheltered over 1,200 in the luxury hotel that he managed.

It all began with the shooting down of a plane carrying the Rwandan and Burundian presidents. Utter madness almost immediately ensued. When Rusesabagina turned to U.N. representatives for assistance their response was all but ludicrous.

How he managed to endure some 100 days of utter devastation and at the same time save the lives of others is a tale of heroic proportions. Here, in An Ordinary Man we're able to hear his story in his own words for the first time. He is candid about the details of that dreadful 100 days, as well as his personal views of actions that might have been taken by international peacekeepers.

Voice performer Dominic Hoffman offers a riveting narrative of an this courageous man's story during this nightmarish time in world history.

- Gail Cooke

An Extraordinary Man
Well written, provocative and emotionally captivating. "An Ordinary Man" should be required reading for everyone, especially young adults - our future generation. I had the pleasure of meeting Paul Rusesbagina when he spoke at a local college on April 10th to a crowd of over 1000. He is humble, bright and compassionate. He escaped death at least half a dozen times during the spring of 1994. I can only wonder if God's plan was not only for him to save 1268 lives, but to bring the whole issue of genocide to the forefront of the minds of the hundreds of thousands who will read this book.

I bought his book on the spot and have been consumed by it for the past week. I've stayed up late; I began researching genocide and I've been lost in deep thought and prayer for those who were murdered and those who are being murdered by genocide as you read this. I plan on reading it again, more slowly in a few months in order to digest all of his ideas, opinions and suggestions.

History was presented to me in a boring manner in high school, but the movie "Hotel Rwanda" and now this book, have caused me to stop what I am doing and take a good hard look at the whole issue of genocide.

Not only genocide, but I can see how the power elite (high level politicians in our country) try to build a case with rhetoric and faulty arguments to get Americans to unknowingly agree with some ludicrous and dangerous beliefs, such as support for the current war in Iraq and possible aggression toward Iran.

In 1994, I remember listening to radio commentary that suggested that the US stay out of Rwanda's affairs and I agreed because that's the case that was built and that's what I heard on the radio. Now I know differently. Imagine if the US stayed out of the affairs of the Nazi holocaust - would there be 6 million more deaths in the 1940's? Because of this book, I have a renewed interest in history. And please, media, don't let me hear you say "ethnic cleansing." The term is genocide.

As far as I'm concerned, Paul Rusesabagina is on the level of Mother Teresa and has a lot in common with her - an ordinary man who was just doing what he could, using peaceful means. And today, Paul heads a foundation that helps the displaced orphans (500,000+).

Read this book as soon as you can and take heed - genocide is something that is ongoing in the Congo and Sudan, and may erupt again in the near future, if not in Rwanda, then somewhere else.

Should be required reading for everyone
I heard Mr. Rusesabagina speak on April 4th at Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, and was fortunate enough to buy an autographed copy of the book. The writing is amazingly beautiful, and every page is filled with ideas that, if followed, will make us all better people. I'm on chapter two at the moment and preparing for the grisly details to come... but am astonished at the hope and spirituality evident even in the face of such ugliness. Paul Rusesabagina is a saint for modern times, and I would recommend not waiting for the paperback edition of this book.... it is destined to become a classic.