Kiffe Kiffe Tomorrow

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Extrait : « Je suis allée dans la cuisine pour nettoyer la gazinière parce que c'état dégueu, avant que l'assistante sociale fasse son inspection ». Guillaume Allary, one of Guène’s editors at the time, who has since founded his own publishing company on Paris’ Right Bank, recalled that in 2004 “there were no voices coming from the banlieues [suburbs]…The book arrived in that heavy silence in a very white, very inward-looking, Parisian literary milieu that was ignorant about a large part of the French population. It became a very symbolic event, which co-opted the family’s sorrow and grief. We wanted to describe the reality of what they went through. That also allowed us to describe what it meant to be an Arab in France in the 80s, the reality of racism and the violence of French-style assimilation. The children believed in “the republican promise” and really tried to integrate as much as they could, then this tragedy made them realise that they were still regarded first and foremost as Arabs. All the parts about the children and contemporary France are invented, but everything that happens in Algeria is very close to what my mother lived through. While working on the novel, I asked her about her first childhood memory. It was the scene of the French soldier who came into their house in Algeria and pointed a gun at her baby brother.

Recently, Guène has started to question the foundations upon which she had built her identity, reading as much as she can about the history of Algeria, its colonisation, independence and immigrants in France. Bernardine Evaristo. I liked her distinctive voice and her way of telling a story in Girl, Woman, Other . I recognised a great deal of myself in that book and it was different from what I had found in French writers.Kiffe Kiffe Demain became so significant you might even say there is a 'before Kiffe Kiffe' and an 'after Kiffe Kiffe' on France’s literary landscape Her debut novel, Kiffe kiffe demain, was published in 2004 when Guène was 19 years old. It has sold more than 400,000 copies and been translated into 26 different languages. The novel was translated into English in 2006 by Sarah Ardizzone under the title Kiffe Kiffe Tomorrow (US) and Just Like Tomorrow (UK) . Her second work, Du rêve pour les oufs, was released on 2006 in France and translated into English by Ardizzone as Dreams from the Endz. Après tout, « le voyage au bout de la nuit » (aucune comparaison possible) n'était pas non plus de la littérature classique. Mais il faut parler aujourd'hui des oeuvres qui marquent leur temps. Guène, herself the child of Algerian immigrants, also grew up in the projects just outside Paris, lending Doria's experiences the ring of gritty truth. You don't have to know much about French history or culture, because Guène explains it all for you beautifully, but if you do know from the Algerian war and the current racism in the banlieues, there's an added layer here to savor. Faïza Guène on France Culture radio in 2018 discussing what the French call "transclasses", or moving from one social class to another (France Culture)

Guène’s slang expressions, paired with the use of the present tense, occasionally make “Kiffe Kiffe Tomorrow” read more like a series of adolescent diary entries than a novel. Yet her dry wit elevates the book above juvenilia. “He’s always high and I think maybe that’s why I like him,” Doria says of a much-older, Rimbaud-spouting drug dealer on whom she harbors a secret crush. A family friend’s husband who spends half the year in Algeria with his second wife and the other half in France with his first, “knew how to hit the right balance, rein himself in. He does it part-time.” Riffing on the Arabic phrase “inshallah,” or “God willing,” Doria remarks, “But, thing is, you can’t ever know if God’s willing or not.” There are even hints of poetry. “Outside, it was gray like the color of our building’s concrete and it was drizzling in very fine drops, as if God were spitting on all of us,” Guène writes. It's also potentially educational in that there's a lot to look up about French pop culture of the late 90s and early 00s, the sort of casual references you might get IRL: e.g. saying someone looks like a certain daytime TV presenter. (The book makes sense without knowing all these references, but I enjoy finding out this sort of stuff. If you like to look things up as you go, it means that this otherwise very straightforward book might not be the most convenient read for public transport.) The Arab immigrant community Doria lives in is rich with all the good and bad aspects of their culture: parties, foods, henna, yes, but also heavy restrictions on women and girls, and

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At 14, she made her first short film about an adolescent girl imprisoned in the family apartment by an overprotective father and brother. A few years later, in 2002, her mother starred in a documentary short she made about a woman working as a cleaner while trying to raise her three children. Involuntarily, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about my identity. I would have preferred to spend more time thinking about my literature.” Inherited shame Why did you put the matriarch Yamina, whose French-born children are nourished and overwhelmed by a love that “overflows like the Mediterranean”, at the heart of your book? A tale for anyone who has ever lived outside looking in, especially from that alien country called adolescence. A funny, heartfelt story from a wise guy who happens to be a girl. If you've ever fallen in love, if you've ever had your heart broken, this story is your story." -- Sandra Cisneros, author of THE HOUSE ON MANGO STREET It was a moment that was crystallised for the character Zouzou (a young woman whose mother is French and her father a Kabyle from Algeria) and for many French when the country won the World Cup football match in 1998.

I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about my identity. I would have preferred to spend more time thinking about my literature' A little more plot, a little more structure wouldn’t have gone amiss though. The story dropped into Doria’s and Yasmina’s lives, and then it dropped out again with a little progress but no real conclusion. He has written a manuscript for another novel , to be published in March. The subject is another "hot topic" – women and equality. Guven says it's about a man who is writing a story about waking up in a world dominated by women.

But for the moment he says he is focusing on his job at Parisian publishing house Latte s, where has been appointed head of a literary imprint . Après un début qui nous interpelle et qui déclenche la révolte, le lecteur lit avec soulagement la suite de l'histoire qui redonne l'espoir et donne l'envie de le faire lire autour de soi. In 2017, Mahir Guven, a young French writer of Turkish and Kurdish origin, followed in Guene's footsteps by writing a book about the difficulty immigrants, and ­ especially those who are Muslim , had integrat ing into French society. Last year, that novel, titled Grand Fre re (Older Brother), won the Goncourt First Novel Prize. The English version, translated by Tina Kover, was released on Tuesday.

This coming of age novel was recommended to me by Rida and while I didn’t like it as much as I had hoped to, I did find it very stark and honest in its portrayal of life on the poor side in Paris, France. I don’t know about you guys but I have a very selective way of thinking about Paris. To me, it is the city of lights, romance and fluffy pastries. Before I read this book, I didn’t think about the people who populated the city, who breathe, live and animate this city. There’s this authenticity in the narrator’s voice, this matter of fact manner of relating facts that I could not help but respond to. Faïza Guèn’s slim but inspired first novel — already a hit in Europe — opens with a glossary. In it, we learn that the phrase “kif-kif” is Arabic for “same old, same old” or “it’s all the same.” The saying is also a refrain of the book’s charmingly sourpuss narrator, Doria, a 15-year-old Muslim girl living in a housing project outside Paris. Guven's prose is far more slang-heavy than Gue ne's in Kiffe Kiffe Demain , but it drew praise from literary critics , with one saying the writer had delivered "an energetic renewal of the French language", given the book's unique rhythm. 'Older Brother' by Mahir Guven, has helped bring Arabic words into French mainstream literature. Born in France to Algerian parents, Guène grew up on the outskirts of Paris in one of the city's many sprawling council estates, home to families often from former French colonies. Doria, she gravitates toward thinking of her life in terms of movies, those thoughts are quite funny.Born in Bobigny, France, in 1985, to parents of Algerian origin, [1] Guène grew up in Pantin, in the northeastern suburbs of Paris. She attended Collège Jean Jaurès, followed by Lycée Marcelin Berthelot in Pantin. [2] She began studies in sociology at Université Paris VIII, in St-Denis, before abandoning them to pursue writing and directing full-time.