"...more than a page-turning narrative; it's an embrace of the Kinyarwanda greeting amahoro--'peace.'"—Oprah.com
An evocative page-turner and an eye-opening meditation on the ways we survive profoundly painful memories and negotiate the complexities of love."—Wally Lamb, author of I Know This Much is True
Finalist – National Reading Group—Great Group Reads 2018
Finalist – Foreword Indies Book of the Year
In 1968, a disillusioned and heartbroken Lillian Carlson left Atlanta after the assassination of Martin Luther King. She found meaning in the hearts of orphaned African children and cobbled together her own small orphanage in the Rift Valley alongside the lush forests of Rwanda.
Three decades later, in New York City, Rachel Shepherd, lost and heartbroken herself, embarks on a journey to find the father who abandoned her as a young child, determined to solve the enigma of Henry Shepherd, a now-famous photographer.
When an online search turns up a clue to his whereabouts, Rachel travels to Rwanda to connect with an unsuspecting and uncooperative Lillian. While Rachel tries to unravel the mystery of her father's disappearance, she finds unexpected allies in an ex-pat doctor running from his past and a young Tutsi woman who lived through a profound experience alongside her father.
Set against the backdrop of a country grieving and trying to heal after a devastating civil war, follow the intertwining stories of three women who discover something unexpected: grace when there can be no forgiveness.
"An intensely beautiful debut."—Library Journal
"Good choice for those seeking tales of hope . . . and it may prove popular with book clubs."—Booklist
Suffering from the loss of an unborn child, Rachel Shepard decides that she needs to find her photographer father. Henry Shepard left his eight-year-old daughter and his wife to follow Lillian, a black woman he fell in love with in an era that was a taboo. Rachel’s relationship with her husband strained by the loss of a child sets out for a six-week stay in Rwanda to look for her father. Set against the backdrop of the one the most heinous genocides the world has ever seen, Rachel lands in Rwanda hoping to reconnect with her father. What she finds is a country trying to set itself right after years of bloodshed. Sadly, Rachel’s search for her father against the Rwanda genocide seemed rather shallow, while the stories of Lillian and Nadine tugged at the heartstrings, Rachel did not elicit any empathy from me.
