Summary of Paul Rusesabagina & Tom Zoellner's An Ordinary Man

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.

Sample Book Insights:

#1 I was born in 1954 in a small village in Rwanda. I was the ninth child of my parents, and I was an island in time’s river, separated by six years from my older sister and five years from my younger brother. I got a lot of attention from my mother because of it.

#2 I grew up in Rwanda, and as I was a middle child, I was often in charge of the family. I had rows of sorghum and bananas planted on the slopes of two hills, which made us solidly middle class by the standards of rural Africa in the 1950s.

#3 I had a father who was very fond of proverbs. He would tell me stories about how some people might be taxed too much by the mayor, and I would learn that any excuse would serve a tyrant.

#4 I grew up in a large family in Rwanda, and I was able to get on well with the new kids in my school. I helped my mother cook supper, and we would often drink a beer called urwagwa. It is a symbol of good-heartedness and collegiality, and it is a central part of Rwandan social life.