"Books of Conscience" Raise Awareness of Genocide

March 05, 2009

The Genocide Prevention Project and the American Booksellers Association have partnered to raise public awareness that April is Genocide Prevention Month, a commemoration of past genocide and mass atrocity crimes and a call for a global prevention policy. To mark the month, ABA and the Genocide Prevention Project have developed "Books of Conscience", a list of fiction and nonfiction, memoir, history, and reportage, which presents the historical realities and human tragedies of genocide. The list will be promoted by the Genocide Prevention Project, which will link to IndieBound.org. A Genocide Prevention Month table easel, along with a letter from former ABA President Mitchell Kaplan and Genocide Prevention Project Director Jill Savitt, will arrive at ABA member stores in the March Red Box.

Genocide Prevention Month is a series of related, independent events, organized by the Genocide Prevention Project, a campaign focused on galvanizing an international movement to take actions when "early warning" indicators signal the possible onset of mass-scale atrocity crimes. The organization seeks to mobilize resources to avert or to halt such ongoing crises and to protect civilians from mass atrocity crimes.

In his letter, Kaplan of Books & Books in South Florida and the Cayman Islands, notes that Books & Books is participating. "We are working with local Darfur advocates and survivors of genocide to organize a display table of books on genocide," he said. "We will also hold a commemoration event with genocide survivors in April." He invites other booksellers to also observe Genocide Prevention Month.

The Genocide Prevention Project, founded in the fall of 2008, formed when a group of Darfur advocates banded together and expanded their focus, explained Savitt. Since several commemorations already occur in April, including one on April 21 at Yad Vashem in Israel for the Holocaust and another on April 19 in Washington, D.C., for Darfur, the project built an awareness month around the events.

Savitt considers independent booksellers a natural partner for promoting the cause. "I think the constituency that independent booksellers serve is our likeliest base. These are people who think about the kind of world we all want to live in. I think this is a partnership that allows us to reach people of conscience around the country."

This April, Savitt suggests using both the "Books of Conscience" book list and the table easel, arriving in the March Red Box, to create in-store displays. The list of 29 titles is based on bookseller recommendations, critical acclaim, and sales. The Genocide Prevention Project will distribute the "Books of Conscience" list to its partner, the Save Darfur Coalition, as well as to other human rights organizations and NGOs, and the project will actively promote Genocide Prevention Month to the media. Booksellers can contact the Genocide Prevention Project to coordinate events with genocide survivors and Darfur advocates.

Six acts of genocide and mass atrocity crimes have anniversaries in April: Darfur, Rwanda, Bosnia, Cambodia, the Holocaust, and Armenia, and each will have a commemoration during the month. Survivor organizations are holding more than 30 other "Remembrance Events." From the Museum of Jewish Heritage to the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, survivor organizations and advocates are staging events throughout the month.

To set up an event with a genocide survivor or Darfur advocate, contact the organizers of Genocide Prevention Month at info@preventorprotect.org or (646) 823-2417. --Karen Schechner

The American Booksellers Association has partnered with the Genocide Prevention Project to help commemorate April as Genocide Prevention Month, a focused period to call for a strong policy framework that is committed to the prevention of genocide.

The titles on this list testify to the historical realities and human tragedies of genocide -- and the acts of courage and commitment of those dedicated to fighting genocide.

The titles selected are based on bookseller recommendations, critical acclaim, and sales. You can learn more about Genocide Prevention Month at www.genocidepreventionmonth.org, and you can find your nearest independent bookstore at www.indiebound.org. (Unless otherwise noted, all titles are paperback editions.)

A Problem From Hell: America and the Age of Genocide by Samantha Power
(Harper Perennial, $17.95, 9780061120145 / 0061120146)
The Sunflower: On the Possibilities and Limits of Forgiveness by Simon Wiesenthal
(Schocken, $14.95, 9780805210606 / 0805210601)

The Bastard of Istanbul by Elif Shafak
(Penguin, $14, 9780143112716 / 0143112716)
Forgotten Fire by Adam Bagdasarian
(Laurel Leaf, $6.99, 9780440229179 / 0440229170) For Teen Readers
A Shameful Act: The Armenian Genocide and the Question of Turkish Responsibility by Taner Akcam
(Holt, $17, 9780805086652 / 080508665X)

The Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway
(Riverhead, $15, 9781594483653 / 1594483655)
The Hemingway Book Club of Kosovo by Paula Huntley
(Tarcher, $13.95, 9781585422937 / 1585422932)
Zlata's Diary: A Child's Life in Wartime Sarajevo by Zlata Filipovic
(Penguin, $14, 9780143036876 / 0143036874)

Children of the River by Linda Crew
(Laurel Leaf, $6.50, 9780440210221 / 0440210224) For Teen Readers
First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers by Loung Ung
(Harper Perennial, $13.95, 9780060856267 / 0060856262)

Darfur: A Short History of a Long War by Julie Flint and Alex de Waal
(Zed Books, $18, 9781842779507 / 1842779508)
Darfur Diaries:  Stories of Survival by Jen Marlowe, Aisha Bain, and Adam Shapiro
(Nation Books, $15.95, 9781560259282 / 1560259280)
The Devil Came on Horseback: Bearing Witness to the Genocide in Darfur by Brian Steidle, Gretchen Steidle Wallace
(PublicAffairs, $14.95, 9781586485696 / 1586485695)
A Long Day's Dying: Critical Moments in the Darfur Genocide by Eric Reeves
(Key Publishing, $37.99, 9780978043148 / 0978043146)
Not on Our Watch: The Mission to End Genocide in Darfur and Beyond by Don Cheadle, John Prendergast
(Hyperion, $12.95, 9781401303358 / 1401303358)
The Translator: A Memoir by Daoud Hari
(Random House Trade Paperbacks, $13, 9780812979176 / 0812979176)

The Diary of a Young Girl: Anne Frank by Anne Frank, Susan Massotty (translator)
(Bantam, $5.99, 9780553577129 / 0553577123)
The Drowned and the Saved by Primo Levi
(Vintage, $12.95, 9780679721864 / 067972186X)
Maus I: A Survivor's Tale by Art Spiegelman
(Pantheon, $14.95, 9780394747231 / 0394747232)
Night by Elie Wiesel, Marion Wiesel (translator)
(Hill and Wang, $9, 9780374500016 / 0374500010)
Number the Stars by Lois Lowry
(Laurel Leaf, $6.99, 9780440227533 / 0440227534) For Readers 9 to 12
Survival in Auschwitz by Primo Levi
(Touchstone, $14, 9780684826806 / 0684826801)

Africa's World War: Congo, the Rwandan Genocide, and the Making of a Continental Catastrophe by Gerard Prunier
(Oxford Univerity Press, $27.95 hardcover, 9780195374209 / 0195374207)
Deogratias: A Tale of Rwanda by J.P. Stassen, Alexis Siegel (translator)
(First Second, $16.95, 9781596431034 / 1596431032) For Teen Readers
Say You're One of Them by Uwem Akpan
(Little, Brown, $23.99 hardcover, 9780316113786 / 0316113786)
Shake Hands With the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda by Romeo Dallaire
(Da Capo, $17.95, 9780786715107 / 0786715103)
A Sunday at the Pool in Kigali: A Novel by Gil Courtemanche
(Vintage, $13.95, 9781400034345 / 1400034345)
We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will be Killed With Our Families
Stories From Rwanda by Phillip Gourevitch
(Picador, $15, 9780312243357 / 0312243359)

What Is the What: The Autobiography of Valentino Achak Deng by Dave Eggers
(Vintage, $15.95, 9780307385901 / 0307385906)

Download the Books of Conscience list in PDF format.

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