Trenton Daniel is a staff writer for The Miami Herald. He asked this of Tracy Kidder, whose most recent book is ``Strength in What Remains: A Journey of Remembrance and Forgiveness'' (Random House, $26):

Q: The tale of Deogratias -- a medical student who flees the 1994 slaughter in his native Burundi and lands in New York with $200 -- is written with amazing clarity and precision. Strength in What Remains is of course a work of nonfiction but, as many are certain to point out, it reads like a novel. You note in the book that you spent more than two years listening to Deo recount his journey and even revisit Harlem, Burundi, and other places with him. Still, how did you go about in recreating Deo's story with such crystal-clear detail, from Burundi to Manhattan and back to Burundi?

A: As you suggest, it helped me a great deal to go with Deo to visit the stations of his life in Burundi, Rwanda and New York. Those trips awakened old memories for him and helped me to see much of what he had seen, as if through his eyes. The trips also allowed me to corroborate, directly and indirectly, many parts of the story that he told me.

My book, as you know, is written in two parts. In the first part, I reconstruct Deo's story from the memories he recounted to me. In the second, I describe accompanying him back to New York and east central Africa and witnessing him in the actual throes of remembering.

I structured the book in this way partly so that I could openly acknowledge that some events in Deo's story rely entirely on Deo's memory. Indeed, this book is in part about the power of memory -- about how to live with it, and, sometimes, how to escape from it.

• Saturday, 3 p.m., Chapman.

Join the discussion

The Miami Herald is pleased to provide this opportunity to share information, experiences and observations about what's in the news. Some of the comments may be reprinted elsewhere in the site or in the newspaper. We encourage lively, open debate on the issues of the day, and ask that you refrain from profanity, hate speech, personal comments and remarks that are off point. In order to post comments, you must be a registered user of MiamiHerald.com. Your username will show along with the comments you post. Thank you for taking the time to offer your thoughts.

     Showing: Oldest first Newest first Most-recommended first Least-recommended first

@Nyx.AuthorDisplayName@ wrote on @Nyx.PostedAtTime@:

@Nyx.repliedToText@

@Nyx.replyAnswerText@

Reply to this Comment @Nyx.Recommender@ @Nyx.AbuseReporter@