Listen to a sample
Cockroaches
- Author
- Scholastique Mukasonga
- Narrator
- Akrosia Samson
- Publisher
- Blackstone Publishing
- Publish Date
- 27 September 2022
- Run Time
- 4 hours 22 minutes
- Format
- Audiobook
What to expect
Imagine being born into a world where everything about you—the shape of your nose, the look of your hair, the place of your birth—designates you as an undesirable, an inferior, a menace, no better than a cockroach, something to be driven away and ultimately exterminated. Imagine being thousands of miles away while your family and friends are brutally and methodically slaughtered. Imagine being entrusted by your parents with the mission of leaving everything you know and finding some way to survive, in the name of your family and your people.
Scholastique Mukasonga’s Cockroaches is the story of growing up a Tutsi in Hutu-dominated Rwanda—the story of a happy child, a loving family, all wiped out in the genocide of 1994. A vivid, bittersweet depiction of family life and bond in a time of immense hardship, it is also a story of incredible endurance and the duty to remember that loss and those lost while somehow carrying on. Sweet, funny, wrenching, and deeply moving, Cockroaches is a window into an unforgettable world of love, grief, and horror.
Critics Review
-
“Related with brave, sobering, steely-eyed calm.”
Library Journal (starred review)
-
“[Mukasonga’s] haunting, urgent personal history of the Rwandan genocide will deeply shade your map.”
New York Times Book Review
-
“Harrowing…Mukasonga’s powerful and poignant book plants itself in that terrible absence, its stone etched with a difficult, necessary grief.”
Publishers Weekly
-
“A child’s view of one of history’s most chilling instances of genocide…A thoughtful, sobering firsthand account of the refugee experience, [and] a story that speaks to readers far beyond the African highlands.”
Kirkus Reviews
User Reviews
No reviews yet.
Details
- Author
- Scholastique Mukasonga
- Narrator
- Akrosia Samson
- Duration
- 4 hours 22 minutes
- Release Date
- 27 September 2022
- ISBN
- 9798212025492
- Format
- Audiobook
- Publisher
- Blackstone Publishing
- Genre
- Memoirs, Biography: general, Gender studies: women and girls, Biography: historical, political and military, Ethnic studies
Synopsis
Imagine being born into a world where everything about you—the shape of your nose, the look of your hair, the place of your birth—designates you as an undesirable, an inferior, a menace, no better than a cockroach, something to be driven away and ultimately exterminated. Imagine being thousands of miles away while your family and friends are brutally and methodically slaughtered. Imagine being entrusted by your parents with the mission of leaving everything you know and finding some way to survive, in the name of your family and your people.Scholastique Mukasonga’s Cockroaches is the story of growing up a Tutsi in Hutu-dominated Rwanda—the story of a happy child, a loving family, all wiped out in the genocide of 1994. A vivid, bittersweet depiction of family life and bond in a time of immense hardship, it is also a story of incredible endurance and the duty to remember that loss and those lost while somehow carrying on. Sweet, funny, wrenching, and deeply moving, Cockroaches is a window into an unforgettable world of love, grief, and horror.
About xigxag
xigxag is an independent, UK-based audiobook platform and the UK's only B Corp certified audiobook company. We offer nearly 150,000 audiobooks, all with professional human narration. No AI-generated voices. xigxag is rated an Ethical Consumer Best Buy for audiobooks and a top-rated ethical bookshop.
There is no subscription. You buy the audiobooks you want, you own them permanently, and prices start at $13.95. The more you listen over the year, the less you pay per book, and there is always a selection in Listen for Less from $7.95. You can also send audiobooks as gifts using our audiobook gift cards or in-app gifting.
Every audiobook on xigxag has honest reviews covering both the book and the narration, and our community features make it easy to share what you are listening to, discover what others recommend, and find your next listen.
Download or stream on iOS, Android, or in your browser. Browse the full catalogue at xigxag.co.uk.