A Thousand Hills http://www.fishpond.co.nz/Books/Thousand-Hills-Stephen-Kinzer/9780470730010

Rwanda's Rebirth and the Man Who Dreamed It

By Stephen Kinzer

About the Author

Stephen Kinzer is an award-winning foreign correspondent who has worked in more than fifty countries on five continents. He has been New York Times bureau chief in Istanbul, Berlin, and Managua, Nicaragua. He is the coauthor of "Bitter Fruit: The Story of the American Coup in Guatemala," and author of "Blood of Brothers: Life and War in Nicaragua"; "Crescent and Star: Turkey Between Two Worlds"; "All the Shah's Men: An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror"; and "Overthrow: America's Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq." His Web site is www.stephenkinzer.com.

Reviews

."..tells a remarkable tale about a remarkable man." ("The Economist", August 21, 2008)

Kinzer ("All the Shah's Men") has penned a hagiographic account of Rwandan president Paul Kagame, the Tutsi refugee who organized the Rwandan Military Front in 1994 and helped halt the genocide in Rwanda. Instead of settling scores, Kagame embarked on a program of reconciliation and reconstruction; Kinzer eloquently describes a physical and psychological recovery unmatched in Africa: a Rwanda whose people are "bubbling with a sense of unlimited possibility." Kagame's goal, modeled on the successes of "Asian tigers" like Singapore, aims to transform Rwanda into the continent's first middle-income country in a single generation, eschewing foreign aid in favor of reliance on business-driven development. Kinzer does not conceal the bloody realities behind Kagame's acquisition of power nor does he deny Kagame's "rigorous, absolutist approach to governing." Nevertheless, he is transparently trusting in Kagame's capabilities and intentions, and while his eloquent prose invites optimism, a half-century of experience urges caution. "(June)" ("Publishers Weekly", April 21, 2008)