Belfast writer collaborates with Rwandan Juvens Nsabimana to tell a story of loss, forgiveness and love

Kill the Devil, now available from all good bookshops, is a love story between a survivor and a perpetrator of genocide, written collaboratively by two authors – NI’s Tony Macaulay and Rwanda’s Juvens Nsabimana, who have experienced the manifold testimonies of survivors and perpetrators in the villages of Rwanda.

The book covers the remarkable progress in reconciliation in the African country since the unspeakable horrors that unfolded there in 1994.

The piece is the result of a transcontinental and cross-cultural collaboration between an author who grew up in Belfast during the Troubles and another who grew up in post genocide Rwanda.

As is observed in the novel: "You can run and leave a place behind, but you can't leave behind what is running inside of you."

The plotline follows a woman and a man, nearly destroyed by extreme violence, hatred and despair, who decide to embark unpon a rare and unexpected path, and discover extreme forgiveness, love and hope.

When three fishermen pull a near lifeless woman from a lake; Patricia's unimaginable loss leaves her life empty and her only motivation to go on is to bring the one responsible to justice.

Always on the verge of running, a man hides from his guilt in Kigali, terrified of his anonymity being compromised and his past uncovered.

Shining a light on the remarkable, untold stories of reconciliation in Rwanda since the genocide in 1994 – there is much that Ulster can learn from the manifold examples of profound reconciliation in a country that became marred in the hell of genocide - Kill the Devil is a love story between a survivor and a perpetrator of violence and shares a lesson about forgiveness that is timeless in its importance and primacy, and should certainly resonate here in Northern Ireland where the Troubles have blighted the lives of so many.

Dr Tony Macaulay is an author, peacebuilder and broadcaster from Belfast.

He has spent the past 35 years working to build peace and reconciliation at home and abroad.

Awarded an honorary doctorate by Ulster University for services to literature and peacebuilding, Tony has been a regular broadcaster on BBC Radio and is a regular speaker at universities and colleges in Europe and the US.

Juvens Nsabimana is a Rwandan screenwriter and film-maker.

He was born in the slums of Kigali, and has been writing and telling stories since he was a child. In early 2013, he started writing film screenplays and throughout his twenties he developed his career as a professional writer with poetry blogs.

Kill the Devil, on which he collaborated with Tony, is his first novel.

Dr MacAulay said: “On my visits to Rwanda I have been inspired by incredible reconciliation work. I was privileged to hear stories of forgiveness and reconciliation, something I’d never heard the like of before - certainly not where I come from.

"Whilst visiting Rwanda I was fortunate to meet Juvens. Following many conversations we were keen to collaborate and help shine a light on the remarkable, untold stories of reconciliation in Rwanda since the genocide in 1994, when a million people were killed in a hundred days.”