Surviving Genocide and Starting Over in New York ================================================ We trace Deogratias Niyizonkiza's journey from the horrors of the Burundi genocide to homelessness in New York City, and finally to becoming a doctor. Tracy Kidder's book is a stunning look at trauma, kindness, and what it takes to rebuild a life. ---------------------------------------- SAM: Hey, welcome back to 7 Minute Books. I'm Sam, and today we're talking about Tracy Kidder's Strength in What Remains. Sophie, I have to ask, did this book wreck you as much as it wrecked me? SOPHIE: Oh, absolutely. It's one of those stories that just stays with you. Strength in What Remains follows a man named Deogratias Niyizonkiza, Deo for short, who escapes the genocide in Burundi and Rwanda and ends up homeless in New York City. And somehow, against every imaginable odds, he becomes a doctor. SAM: Right. And Kidder structures it in two timelines. One is Deo's life in New York right after he lands, he's sleeping on a mattress in a roach-infested room, delivering groceries. And the other timeline goes back to the genocide he fled. SOPHIE: That structure is so effective. Because you're watching him struggle with something as simple as navigating the subway, and then you cut back to him hiding in a latrine for days while people with machetes hunt for him. The contrast is jarring. SAM: Yeah, and it makes you realize that even though he's physically safe in New York, he's still trapped inside his own mind. He has flashbacks, panic attacks, this overwhelming guilt that he survived when his siblings didn't. SOPHIE: And he has no language for it. He doesn't know what PTSD is. He just thinks he's going crazy. There's this haunting detail where he scrubs his hands raw, like he's trying to wash away the blood he's seen. SAM: Man, that got me. And what's incredible is how many small kindnesses save him. A former patient of his, an American woman named Sharon, gives him her address before he leaves Burundi. She and her husband Charlie take him in when he arrives in New York. SOPHIE: Right. And then later, Dr. Paul Farmer, you know, the guy from Kidder's earlier book Mountains Beyond Mountains, becomes a mentor. Farmer helps Deo navigate the academic system and eventually gets him into Columbia. SAM: It's like a chain of people who see past his brokenness. But Deo also has this core of stubborn hope. I mean, the guy delivers groceries and studies for the SATs at the same time. He's exhausted, traumatized, and still pushing forward. SOPHIE: And that's the question the title asks, What remains after everything is taken? For Deo, it's his intellect, his sense of duty to the dead, and this almost inexplicable drive to become a doctor so he can heal others. SAM: The genocide part is brutal. Kidder describes it with this clinical precision that somehow makes it more horrifying. Deo sees his best friend hacked to death with a machete. He's forced to carry ammunition for the killers. SOPHIE: And what's so chilling is how ordinary the killers seem. Deo eventually returns to Burundi years later and meets the man who murdered his best friend. The guy is just a farmer now, living in the same village, completely unrepentant. SAM: What does Deo do? Does he confront him? SOPHIE: He talks to him, but there's no catharsis. Deo expects rage, but instead he feels this hollow sadness. The killer isn't a monster, he's a neighbor who got swept up in the ideology. And Deo's response is to build a clinic in his home village where Hutus and Tutsis are treated side by side. SAM: That's the strength in what remains, right? He can't undo the genocide. He can't bring back his family. But he can become a doctor and heal people. He can create something new. SOPHIE: Exactly. And Kidder doesn't sugarcoat it. Deo is flawed, he has a temper, he's stubborn, he struggles to accept help. That's what makes his story so human. He's not a saint; he's a guy who refused to give up. SAM: There's also a quiet critique of the international community. The U.N., the U.S., Europe, they all looked away during the genocide. Deo's story is a reminder that behind the political failures are millions of individual lives. SOPHIE: Kidder's prose is deceptively simple, but it lands so hard. He lets the facts speak. And honestly, if you want to go deeper, the whole library's over at 7minutebooks.com/app, with six thousand-plus fiction and nonfiction titles you can read or listen to in any language. It starts at $2.99 a month, $9.99 a year, or $19.99 once for lifetime access. SAM: I think the takeaway for me is just how much a single act of kindness can matter. Sharon's address, Farmer's mentorship, those small things changed everything for Deo. It makes me wonder how many people like him are out there that we never see. SOPHIE: Yeah. And that's the book's quiet challenge to us. It's a story about survival, but also about the responsibility we have to the strangers in our midst. Strength in What Remains is a powerful reminder that even in the darkest times, there is strength in what remains. SAM: We'll see you in the next one.