Shake Hands with the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda is a 2003 book by Lieutenant-General Roméo Dallaire of the Canadian Armed Forces, with help from Major Brent Beardsley .

The book chronicles the fateful months of Dallaire's tour as Force Commander of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR) in 1993-1994, during which he witnessed the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

This book won the 2003 Shaughnessy Cohen Award for Political Writing, and 2004 Governor General's Award for nonfiction.

There is a French edition published, titled J'ai serré la main du diable - La faillité de l'humanité au Rwanda.

A documentary film, inspired by the book and showing LGen Dallaire's return to Rwanda after ten years, was produced by the CBC, SRC and White Pine Pictures and was released in 2004. The film was nominated for two Sundance Film Festival Awards, winning the 2004 Sundance Film Festival Audience Award for World Cinema - Documentary (Peter Raymont ) and a nomination for Grand Jury Prize for World Cinema - Documentary (Peter Raymont). The film aired on CBC on January 31, 2005.

ISBN numbers

• ISBN 0679311718 (hardcover, Vintage Canada -a division of Random House Canada-, 2003)
• ISBN 0679311726 (paperback, Vintage Canada, 2004)
• ISBN 0786715103 (paperback, Carroll & Graf Publishers, 2005)
• ISBN 276480072X (French edition, paperback, Libre Expression, 2003)

External Link

Review and an excerpt at Random House of Canada site