Left to Tell by Immaculee Ilibagiza, Steve Erwin (2006, Hardcover)

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.