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'This is a remarkable novel ... and a remarkably brave one. It is compelling and gripping. The horrors of man's inhumanity to man are presented unblinkingly' - Scotsman
'Demotic clichés, literary illusions and lyrical descriptions, translated from the French with verve by Frank Wynne.' - Spectator
'A searing account of evil, guilt and shame' - Financial Times
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In a crumbling colonial mansion besieged by slums in the old quarter of Algiers, Lamia lives a life of self-imposed isolation, communing only with her ghosts by day, working as a paediatrician by day. Her family are dead, but for her beloved brother Sofiane, who has become a harraga – one of those who risk their lives attempting to flee the country for a better life in Europe or elsewhere.
Lamia's tranquil, ordered existence is turned upside-down when a sixteen-year-old stranger knocks on her door in the middle of the night. Only because she has been sent by Sofiane, Lamia takes the girl in. Pregnant, unmarried and dressed in garish finery like an X-Factor contestant, Chérifa is talkative, curiously innocent, and utterly unafraid. She enters the house like a whirlwind, and leaves a trail of destruction in her wake. Lamia must try to teach her, to protect her against a world where a woman who is not meek, subservient, married is an affront, where a girl who is pregnant can be killed to spare her family's honour.
By turns funny and lyrical, luminous and sardonic, Harraga, by the controversial author of An Unfinished Business, is the engaging and ultimately tragic story of two very different women who become friends and allies in a patriarchal world.
Les mer
Humane, searching and audacious ... This is Sansal's first to be translated into English. One hopes the rest will follow
Dazzling novel about two women in Algiers – one young and rebellious, the other a recluse – by the controversial author of An Unfinished Business
Major novel by the leading Algerian novelist and winner of the Grand-Prix RTL-Lire in France and the German Book Trade's Peace Prize (Frankfurt, 2011)
Produktdetaljer
ISBN
9781408843994
Publisert
2015-11-05
Utgiver
Vendor
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
Vekt
200 gr
Høyde
198 mm
Bredde
129 mm
Aldersnivå
G, 01
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Heftet
Antall sider
288
Forfatter
Oversetter