MIMI's Life & Style List: Avant Garde
Baking Cakes In Kigali
Written By: Staff Writer
Photo Credits: Penguin Books
Caption: "Baking Cakes In Kigali Book Cover Art"
.
At the heart of Baking Cakes In Kigali is Angel Tungaraza, a Tanzanian woman
who has recently moved to Rwanda with her husband Pius and their five
orphaned grandchildren. Menopausal and putting on weight, she is an
enthusiastic baker of delicious, brightly-iced cakes, which she sells to friends and
neighbours. The novel is divided into 14 sections, each of which hinges on a
special occasion for which Angel bakes a cake. But over each celebration, full of
promise for the future, hangs the shadow of the terrible past. For the novel is set
six years after Rwanda's genocide of 1994—"those hundred days while violence
was tearing this country to pieces like a chicken on a plate". Angel is entirely
aware that many of the Rwandans around her have witnessed and survived
horrors she can barely imagine. But she also knows that their lives continue, that
they also have reasons to celebrate, to be joyous and to be happy. As she gets
to know her neighbours and as they tell her their stories, she comes to realize
how much each of them has to mourn as well as how much they have to
celebrate. And, finally, she comes to accept how much that is true of her too.
Baking Cakes In Kigali
Written By: Staff Writer
Photo Credits: Penguin Books
Caption: "Baking Cakes In Kigali Book Cover Art"
.
At the heart of Baking Cakes In Kigali is Angel Tungaraza, a Tanzanian woman
who has recently moved to Rwanda with her husband Pius and their five
orphaned grandchildren. Menopausal and putting on weight, she is an
enthusiastic baker of delicious, brightly-iced cakes, which she sells to friends and
neighbours. The novel is divided into 14 sections, each of which hinges on a
special occasion for which Angel bakes a cake. But over each celebration, full of
promise for the future, hangs the shadow of the terrible past. For the novel is set
six years after Rwanda's genocide of 1994—"those hundred days while violence
was tearing this country to pieces like a chicken on a plate". Angel is entirely
aware that many of the Rwandans around her have witnessed and survived
horrors she can barely imagine. But she also knows that their lives continue, that
they also have reasons to celebrate, to be joyous and to be happy. As she gets
to know her neighbours and as they tell her their stories, she comes to realize
how much each of them has to mourn as well as how much they have to
celebrate. And, finally, she comes to accept how much that is true of her too.
