Do Not Disturb: The Story of a Political Murder and an African Regime Gone Bad

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SHORTLISTED FOR THE ORWELL PRIZE 2022

Superb The Times

Engrossing and revelatory' Observer

Powerful, compelling and meticulously researched New Statesman
A new book from the award winning author of In the Footsteps of Mr Kurtz,Do Not Disturb explores the controversial career of Paul Kagame and the legacy of the Rwandan genocide

Do Not Disturb is a dramatic recasting of the modern history of Africas Great Lakes region, an area blighted by the greatest genocide of the twentieth century. This bold retelling, vividly sourced by direct testimony from key participants, tears up the traditional script.

In the old version, an idealistic group of young rebels overthrows a genocidal regime in Kigali, ushering in an era of peace and stability that makes Rwanda the donor darling of the West, winning comparisons with Switzerland and Singapore. The new version examines afresh questions which dog the recent past: Why do so many ex-rebels scoff at official explanations of who fired the missile that killed the presidents of Rwanda and Burundi Why didnt the mass killings end when the rebels took control Why did those same rebels, victory secured, turn so ruthlessly on one another

Michela Wrong uses the story of Patrick Karegeya, once Rwandas head of external intelligence and a quicksilver operator of supple charm, to paint the portrait of a modern African dictatorship created in the chilling likeness of Paul Kagame, the president who sanctioned his former friends murder.

A withering assault on the murderous regime of Kagame, and a melancholy love song to the last dreams of the African Great Lakes John Le Carre

Reviews

Praise for Do Not Disturb:

A withering assault on the murderous regime of Kagame, and a melancholy love song to the last dreams of the African Great Lakes very driven, very impassioned John Le Carre

Superb an epic tale of blood, bitterness and betrayal a gripping tale The Times

She has chosen to ignore that Do Not Disturb sign and, in an overdue book that takes the injunction as its title, she rips off the [Rwandan] regimes veil of respectability to expose the horrors beneath [a] powerful, compelling and meticulously researched book New Statesman

Engrossing and revelatory part murder mystery and part sweeping history of an extended family tragedy spread over two countries, three wars, four decades and a genocide Observer

'[A] brave and tremendous book [Michela Wrong] has produced a classic, her own journalistic complicity in the hollowness at the heart of power to rival Rian Malans My Traitors Heart and Gitta Serenys Albert Speer: His Battle with Truth Spectator

In this extremely important and profoundly disturbing book, Michela Wrong sets out all the miss-steps that were ignored, all the flagrant human rights abuses that were overlooked and all the criminality for which excuses were found, until the new horrors that have been visited upon that country were perpetrated. Archbishop Desmond Tutu, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize

A damning jaccuse on many fronts. An extraordinarily brave piece of reporting Financial Times

Extraordinary and utterly gripping, an excoriating work of immense courage and commitment, one that will surely make waves Philippe Sands, author of The Ratline: Love, Lies and Justice on the Trail of a Nazi Fugitive

One of the most far-reaching historical revisions of Kagame and his regime. Meticulously researched, with substantial new material and interviews Guardian

Author Bio

Michela Wrong is a distinguished international journalist, and has worked as a foreign correspondent covering events across the African continent for Reuters, the BBC and the Financial Times. Based on her experiences in Africa, In the Footsteps of Mr Kurtz, her first book, won the PEN James Sterne Prize for non-fiction. Her book I Didnt Do It for You (2006) builds upon her shocking experiences, and focuses on the African nation of Eritrea. In 2015, she published Borderlines, her first novel. Michela Wrong is based in London.