Beata Umubyeyi Mairesse was born in Butare in Rwanda in 1979. She was fifteen when she survived the genocide that claimed as many as 800,000 Tutsi lives and was eventually able to make her way to Europe. She settled in France and has become a writer. Her first novel Tous tes enfants disperses and Consolée, her second novel, were both widely praised by critics and booksellers. The Convoy is her first autobiographical work.
