This Is Not Who We Are

'...succeeds in shedding fresh light on an atrocity that is far too little known in the West' - Buzz Magazine 'Sophie Buchaillard's novel is a stark and terrifying reminder that only the most fragile screen separates the familiar from the abyss, the comforts of home from the most obscene and extreme violence. It is an elegant and sombre reflection on what it means to retain one's humanity in the face of a brutal and dehumanising cataclysm.' - Richard Gwyn Iris and Victoria are pen-pals. One day Victoria's letters from Rwanda suddenly stop. In Paris, Iris can only wonder why. Through her father's work she knows a terrible genocide has taken place. Still haunted by the loss of her penfriend, twenty years later Iris - now a journalist in London - pitches a story to her editor: she will try to find Victoria.

Sophie Buchaillard was born in Paris in a family defined by travel and a blending of languages and cultures. She herself travelled across Europe, the United States and Africa and lived in Bordeaux (France), Salamanca (Spain), Merrill (NY-USA) and London, settling in South Wales in 2001, almost by accident.