17th February, 2026 in Recommended Reads

A Thread of Silent Echoes by Patrick Nzabonimpa

Both of the following quotes stayed with me after reading two of the many impactful stories in this collection: “I am not holding a knife to my own neck. I am holding it to the throat of a hopeful young man I used to be, and the act now feels not like an escape, but like a murder” from the short story, “The Price of the Broken.” “She had a way of telling you something that felt like nothing, then two days later, it would bloom inside like a proverb” from “Maybe That’s What Memory Is.”  The short story collection, A Thread of Silent Echoes, by Patrick Nzabonimpa, sets us within the backdrop of Rwanda, as we experience fourteen stories that explore the fragility of daily life and the resilience required in the face of strife. As these quotes show, Nzabonimpa uses powerful descriptive language and meaningful scenes to illustrate many of the characters’ conflict and budding hope.