The story continues and the reader is drawn to what so few of us could ever imagine, war, genocide, murder and heartbreak at that tender age. Gabriel’s first-person narrative describes his carefree days spent with his sister; sharing mischief and stories with his band of five friends hiding out in a broken-down Volkswagen bus; and his later visits to their Greek neighbor, whose novels let him escape the limits of the cul-de-sac where they live, when his familiar world begins to close in. In juxtaposition, his interior monologue seeks to pinpoint when divisive identity politics crept up on them, where the violence came from, and how their time of innocence was ruptured. Nabokov remembers visiting Faye in Rwanda’s capital, Kigali, where he lived for a time with his wife and daughters, when they received the first proofs of Small Country.

La storia sembra simile a quella personale dello scrittore che però, fortunatamente, mi sembra di capire che lasciando l’Africa avesse accanto i suoi genitori. Grey, Tobias (29 May 2018). "A French-Rwandan Rap Star Turned Novelist From Burundi". The New York Times.The movie also suffers from historical accuracy of set decor; it is way too westernized, contradictory to how life was in africa in the 80s and early 90s. I can forgive some things but when the cast trots around dressed as if they are strolling in paris, I take an objection to that! Astrid Krivian, « Gaël Faye: «L’écriture apporte la complexité qui nous manque»», sur Le Point, 14 août 2021 (consulté le 15 septembre 2021)

Faye wrote a novel inspired by his teenage-years' experience of the war in Burundi. [5] Small Country ( Petit Pays) [6] was first published in France in August 2016 by Grasset. It won five literary prizes. [7] [8] It has been translated into 36 languages [9] [10] and made into a movie, released in 2020. [11] Music [ edit ] How long can they be shielded from the fear, brutality and atrocities that are escalating in Burundi and neighbouring Rwanda? Il paradiso perduto è quello del piccolo Gaby, la spensieratezza dell’infanzia, fino ai dodici anni, perduta quando la paura e la morte arrivano d'improvviso alla porta, costringendolo, proprio come è successo a Gaël Faye, a lasciare il suo paese natale, il Burundi, per trasferirsi in Francia. The news of a coup d'etat arrives when the radio plays classic music nonstop, it is a sign, one that has happened before, in November 1966 it was a Shubert piano sonata, in 1987 Chopin. Gaby is a boy of ten living in Burundi with his French father and Rwandan mother. The novel begins with the lovely memories he has of his childhood—being a carefree kid, playing with friends, exploring the beautiful countryside—but gradually darkens as political upheaval and violence sweep through his life, forcing him to make terrible decisions that will haunt him for the rest of his days.The translations of Petit pays into thirty languages and its five French literary prizes attest to the universal appeal of this first novel by Gaël Faye, a Franco-Rwandese rapper and former London trader. Bearing the eponymous title of one of Faye’s autobiographical rap songs, the novel is set in Bujumbura, the capital of the child-narrator’s paradise, Burundi, the “small country” abutting Rwanda, Zaïre (today’s DRC), and Lake Tanganyika. Born, as Faye sings, of a “croissant au beurre” and a “pili-pili,” the author’s and narrator’s lives overlap. Each is the son of a French expatriate father and a Rwandese refugee mother, born and raised in Burundi during the years leading up to the 1994 genocide in Rwanda and the concurrent tragedy that unfolds in Burundi, during the novel’s diegesis from 1992 to 1995, and necessitates their expatriation to France. Faye is at the end of a whirlwind tour around the United States, promoting the English translation of his 2016 novel, Small Country , the popular success of which he says he has had a hard time keeping up with. The story is based on his own experiences of growing up métis (mixed race—he is French-Rwandan) in Bujarumba (the capital of Burundi), as well as the civil war and genocide that forced his family to flee to Paris in 1995 when he was 13. He wrote the novel at the prompting of Parisian editor Catherine Nabokov, who first became interested in Faye’s talent for rhyme and narrative when she heard her teenage son listening to his music. She reached out to Faye to ask if he could write books, too. As it turned out, Nabokov’s instincts were right: Small Country has won several prestigious literary prizes in France, including the Prix du premier roman français and the Prix Goncourt des lycéens. In 2016, the book sold over 700,000 copies in the French-speaking world alone, and it is currently being adapted into a movie. JDD, Le. "PORTRAIT. Gaël Faye, l'écriture pour la vie". lejdd.fr (in French) . Retrieved 2022-06-19.

The assassination of Rwandan president Juvénal Habyarimana and Burundian president Cyprien Ntaryamira in 1993 - Their airplane was shot down as they landed in Rwanda. Genocidal killings of Tutsis and murders of moderate Hutus began the next day Nabokov adds that the head of public relations, Hélène Szuszkin, and the rights director, Heidi Warneke, played strategic roles. “But success is also a mysterious alchemy,” she says, “and is unpredictable.” Nicolas Gary (28 August 2016). "Le roman de Gaël Faye, Petit pays, sollicité par les éditeurs du monde entier". ActuaLitté. At first, says Nabokov, he wanted to use two voices, sometimes even three. “He wanted to weave together the voice of the adult and the child all along. He tried that for a while.”Faye then released three solo albums and one EP: Pili Pili sur un Croissant au Beurre (2013),Des fleurs EP (2014) Purtroppo il 95% del breve romanzo soffre invece di una scrittura zoppicante, come succede spesso quando un adulto vuole mettersi all’altezza di un bambino, riprodurre il linguaggio e la prospettiva dell’infanzia è impresa quasi impossibile. Ancora di più, se l’autore mischia la consapevolezza retrospettiva dell’adulto, il cosiddetto senno del poi. For Gaby and Ana, Bujumbura is home, it is where they belong. Each day unfolds according to routine, as the domestics arrive, the gate is opened, thy prepare for school, are driven there, there is a little change as Gaby begins college and new friendships develop. His close friends live in the same alleyway, the twins, Gino, Armand. And Francis who they conflict with. They hang out in an abandoned Combi, talking, laughing, planning things.