Mukasonga arrived in France in 1992 and had to retake the test for social workers, as the diploma she received in Burundi was not recognized by the French administration.

It was following this journey that she felt the urge to write her first book, an autobiography titled Inyenzi ou les Cafards.

The English-language version, translated by Jordan Stump, was entitled Cockroaches, and was nominated for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in 2016 in the autobiography category.

She received the Seligmann Prize, from the Chancellerie des universités de Paris, which recognizes work fighting against racism and intolerance.

[6][7] The English translation of this work, Our Lady of the Nile, was selected as one of the ten best books for the Dublin Literary Award and was a finalist for the Emerging Voices prize in Financial Times.

[9] Her second book, La femme aux pieds nus (The Barefoot Woman), is a homage to her mother, Stefania, and to all the women of Nyamata who dedicated themselves to the survival of their children from certain death.

Mukasonga considers these first two books as a memorial and a tomb to her loved ones and all the anonymous inhabitants of Nyamata who lie in ossuaries or mass graves.

Behind closed doors, so-called ethnic rivalries are continually provoked and reinforced by the unity of the location and the rainy season.

[13] Returning to autobiography with the publishing of Un si beau diplome !, Mukasonga relates how her father pushed her to obtain a diploma to save her from the threat of death.

In exile in Burundi, Djibouti, and finally in France, the "beautiful diploma" was a talisman of energy that helped her overcome exclusion and despair.

"Kibogo Climbed to the Sky") satirizes the question of religion, evangelization, and the extent of their link to the period of colonization.