An ordinary man : an autobiography

Summary: Paul Rusesabagina is a most extraordinary "ordinary man." During the 1994 Rwandan massacres, this humble hotel manager maneuvered successfully to save the lives of his 1,268 countrymen. Others were not so lucky: Beyond the Kigali hotel walls, approximately 800,000 were slaughtered, most of them hacked to death by machete. As the son of a Hutu father and Tutsi mother, Rusesabagina grew up keenly aware of relations, hostile and otherwise, between these two groups. His recollections show how this seemingly spontaneous genocide reflected growing conflicts in Rwandan politics and society. It should be no surprise that his heroic personal story became the inspiration for the film Hotel Rwanda. A powerful story of bravery in the midst of madness.