The irony of fiction
The novel compares and contrasts the two different modes of writing: fiction and non-fiction. There is an irony in fiction, because the writer employs fiction (Murambi is technically a fictional novel with elements of non-fiction embedded in it), and because of Cornelius. Cornelius is literally a fiction writer, so his journey of understanding truth is fictional in multiple senses, and yet, the story is about truth and being brave enough to face the hard facts of the Rwandan Genocide. The irony is that fiction employs narrative, which captures truth better than facts and figures.
The irony of the Genocide itself
There is simply no getting around the irony of tribal warfare at such a large scale. The whole world knew what was happening, but no one intervened, not really, until it was almost done. 800,000 Tutsi people were killed in ethnic cleansing, and ironically, they were killed by neighboring tribes. Those tribes could have collaborated to double their cultural authority, but they let in-fighting and blame games push them toward hatred.
The irony of violence and humanity
As Cornelius learns the hard way, no one is above violence. There are animal instincts that are violent, and by emotional compromises, any person could become violent. Cornelius goes expecting to face the full weight of tragedy, but he learns something unfathomable: his own Hutu father betrayed the Tutsi half of the family, leading the killing in Murambi. If his father has those instincts, certainly the son has them, because his father accounts for half of his DNA. The irony is that Cornelius has the blood of both victim and villain, so that the father is a symbol for the ubiquity of human evil.
The irony of the mother's death
A son studying the death of his mother is ironic, because it invokes the natural irony of death, first of all. Most humans live in a state of ignorance about death, for comfort's sake, until tragedy happens, and then they cannot ignore it, so death is veiled in dramatic irony. Also, the mother's death symbolizes the bizarre duality of life and death: Cornelius's life-giving mother has died.
The irony of meta-narrative
The meta-narrative element of this novel comes when the author, Diop, writes himself into the story. Although the real life author wrote fiction, the character writes non-fiction. Also, the meta-narrative paints him as a pursuer of truth, which is also what the book's intention is, to encourage investigation and appreciation for the losses of life. The character represents the need for people to know more about the Rwandan Genocide, and he literally teaches those facts to the reader.
