Jacaranda by Gaël Faye

Faced with the prospect of having to repeat a year in school, 12-year-old Milan tells his parents the first lie he can think of: his bad grades are due to the genocide in Rwanda, his mother's homeland. In reality, he knows little about Rwanda or his mother's past, which she has kept secret. Soon after, Claude arrives, a boy from Rwanda with a mysterious wound and shadowy backstory. Thrilled to have a new playmate, Milan treats Claude as a brother until one day, he is gone, back to Rwanda as quickly as he came. Four years later, Milan travels for the first time to Rwanda, encountering a beguiling country and family members he never knew existed. Over the course of many years, Milan will return to Rwanda again and again, always confronting new sides of himself and those he loves. Spanning generations and time, this is a rich and deeply felt portrait of a man seeking to understand his family and his nation as it heals from the unthinkable.