One Must Imagine a Girl Happy: A poetry collection

’Misfit in the present, unfit for the future, /She’s forever doomed to be a time traveler.’ In the epigraph Ange Dusingize sets the tone of the book, in which she battles intruder syndrome, talks on themes of seeking oneself far from home, family history and its subsequent trauma, healing and finding hope at the end of the tunnel.

In an intimate debut collection, Ange invites you into her childhood in Rwanda; the family dynamics revolving around alcoholism and emotional repression, takes you along as she grows into a young woman and eventually leaves home to study abroad, and the intruder syndrome that ensues from being black and a woman in Eastern Europe. Potent, intentional and raw, this collection does not mince words but rather bares the author’s soul as she learns and unlearns herself and the world around her.

One must imagine a girl happy is for readers seeking honest, contemporary poetry that speaks on womanhood, family relationships and the courage to keep imagining happiness.