Gabriel

Gabriel is the narrator and central protagonist of Fael’s novel, Small Country. Gabriel, who also goes by the nickname Gaby, is a generally sensitive and inquisitive young boy. He is the son of a Rwandan mother and a French father, and was born and raised in the small country of Burundi. There, in Burundi, Gabriel and his sister Ana enjoy a privileged life, something that the young Gabriel does not always understand or appreciate.

For most of the novel, Gabriel is around 10 years of age, though the beginning and end sections of the novel are also narrated by an older version of Gabriel, when he is 33 years old. The existence of an older version of Gabriel shows the reader how the traumatic experiences of Gabriel’s childhood have impacted him as an adult. The trauma and loss that marked Gabriel’s childhood transform him into a reclusive...