2013 - Running the Rift
Running the Rift tells the story of Jean Patrick Nkuba, a gifted Rwandan boy, from the day he knows that running will be his life to the moment he must run to save his life, a ten-year span in which his country is undone by the Hutu-Tutsi tensions. It won the 2010 Bellwether Prize for fiction, a prize awarded for a first novel that has discussed social engagement within its literature.
Naomi Benaron was born and raised in Boston, MA and currently lives in Tucson, AZ. She is a graduate of The Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Antioch University, Los Angeles and Scripps University of Oceanography, San Diego. She is also the author of ‘Love Letter from a Fat Man’, a collection of short stories, which won the 2006 G. S. Sharat Chandra prize for fiction. Her works extend to poetry which has been published in many acclaimed journals and anthologies. She is also a marathon runner.
She said, “I am both thrilled and deeply honored to have Running the Rift selected for the 2013 Lake Oswego Reads program. I wrote this novel to address the Rwandan genocide in a way that went beyond the news clips that so often flicker unnoticed across our TV screens. For me, this event is like a dream come true; it is a chance for the entire community to share in this story that has become such an important part of my life.”Running the Rift tells the story of Jean Patrick Nkuba, a gifted Rwandan boy, from the day he knows that running will be his life to the moment he must run to save his life, a ten-year span in which his country is undone by the Hutu-Tutsi tensions. It won the 2010 Bellwether Prize for fiction, a prize awarded for a first novel that has discussed social engagement within its literature.
Naomi Benaron was born and raised in Boston, MA and currently lives in Tucson, AZ. She is a graduate of The Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Antioch University, Los Angeles and Scripps University of Oceanography, San Diego. She is also the author of ‘Love Letter from a Fat Man’, a collection of short stories, which won the 2006 G. S. Sharat Chandra prize for fiction. Her works extend to poetry which has been published in many acclaimed journals and anthologies. She is also a marathon runner.
She said, “I am both thrilled and deeply honored to have Running the Rift selected for the 2013 Lake Oswego Reads program. I wrote this novel to address the Rwandan genocide in a way that went beyond the news clips that so often flicker unnoticed across our TV screens. For me, this event is like a dream come true; it is a chance for the entire community to share in this story that has become such an important part of my life.”
Books considered for 2013