Description

A young revolutionary plants a bomb in a factory on the outskirts of Algiers during the Algerian War. The bomb is timed to explode after work hours, so no one will be hurt. But the authorities have been watching. He is caught, the bomb is defused, and he is tortured, tried in a day and sentenced to death by guillotine. A routine event, perhaps, in a brutal conflict that ended the lives of more than a million Muslim Algerians.

But what if the militant is a “pied-noir”? What if his lover is a Jewish survivor of the Holocaust? What happens to a “European” who chooses the side of anti-colonialism?

By turns lyrical, meditative, and heart-stoppingly suspenseful, this debut novel by Joseph Andras, based on a true story, was a literary and political sensation in France, winning the Prix Goncourt for First Novel and being acclaimed by Le Monde as “vibrantly lyrical and somber” and by the journal La Croix as a “masterpiece”.

Publisher Review

"Vibrantly lyrical and somber...strikingly powerful" - Le Monde "A masterpiece" - La Croix "Lyrical, precise, and rhythmic" - L'Humanite "Empathic, nerve-wracking, and inspired" - France Info "A great book even before being a first book" - Phillipe Claudel, Goncourt judge "A clear-eyed recreation of postwar Communism and the armed battle against tyranny, shot through with intense prose and insight into the characters' inner lives." - Publishers Weekly "A promising debut ... Andras revives a lost moment in history" - Kirkus Reviews "Deeply affecting ... A remarkable book." - Morning Star