FernFolio

Fifteen year-old Ian needs 40 hours of community service if he wants to pass Grade 10 Civics. Since he’s left it so long, he ends up in one of the most demanding volunteer placements available, serving food to homeless men at The Club, a soup kitchen on the wrong side of town. Though Ian makes it clear to him that he’s only there for the hours, Mac, the tough, straight-talking guy who runs The Club, takes a shine to the teen. Mac, a former alcoholic, knows firsthand how hard life is on the streets, and, by watching how he interacts with The Club’s clients, Ian learns a lot about homelessness and the homeless. For this privileged kid from the suburbs, the grim realities of mental illness and alcoholism, and the dangers and isolation and invisibility of life on the street are both a shock and a revelation.
When Ian is rescued from a violent mugging by Sarge, a former soldier, who is now living with other homeless men in a small camp of tents hidden away in the park, he wonders how a man who is so clearly educated, self-disciplined and rational, could end up on the streets. Assigned by his Civics teacher to interview someone from the Armed Forces, Ian seeks out the former soldier and learns about his twenty-four year career in the military, and the many UN peacekeeping missions in which he participated. But, when Sarge mentions Rwanda and Ian admits to knowing nothing about this place, Sarge clams up, obviously distressed.
So begins Ian’s education about the 1994 Rwandan genocide, in which over 800,000 Tutsis were killed while UN Peacekeepers stood by, unable to stop the violence. Over the course of several weeks, Ian speaks to Sarge about the terrible things he observed in Rwanda, the killings and the mutilations, about the UN’s failure to react to Peacekeepers’ warnings of approaching slaughter, of the man’s anguish and rage, and of the nightmares that won’t leave him. The teen learns that people from other parts of the world have also been witness to atrocities, including his own housekeeper, who lives with the memories of Guatemala’s Disappeared.
His experiences, both at The Club and with Sarge, change Ian. He finds himself going to the soup kitchen, long after his 40 hours are done, hooked on the need to help, and, after a lot of soul searching, decides to tackle Sarge about his drinking, and to do everything he can to aid the former soldier in facing his nightmares and finding the courage to live again.
Shattered is a fine story about two very difficult topics, homelessness and the Rwanda genocide. It moved me to tears. Well worth the read!
FernFolio Editor