Harraga [Nov 06, 2014] Sansal, Boualem and Wynne, Frank

Dazzling novel about two women in algiers – one young and rebellious, the other arecluse – by the controversial author of an unfinished business. 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/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 xfactor contestant, chérifa is talkative, curiously innocent, and utterly unafraid. She enters the house like a whirlwind, and leaves a trail of destruction in her wak