Fifteen-year-old Doria isn’t in a good place. Or to be precise: she’s in the sadlymisnamedParadise Estate on the outskirts of Paris. Her father has gone off backMorocco to find a wife who can give him a boy, and her illiterate, non-French-speaking mother is having to fend for herself with a cleaning job in a grim motel. What’s more, her favourite soap star has turned out to be gay and it looks like the only school that is going to accept Doria is the one for future hairdressers. Still, it could be worse: Doria could be like Samra, the girl in the flat above, whose father doesn’t let her out, or Youssef who has been banged up for a year for dealing in drugs and stolen cars. At least Hamoudi-twenty-eight and the coolest guy on the estate-is her friend. And at least she gets a free weekly session with psychologist Mrs Burland, who is about the only person who listens, even if she doesn’t quite understand…In this fabulous first novel, Faiza Guene has created an unforgettable voice. Doria is both clued up and innocent, acutely aware of what’s in store for her and powerless to change it. She is funny, clever and tragically trapped. But in the end, her dogged determination not to be downtrodden and humiliated wins through and it looks like things can only get better.
About the Author
Faiza Guene was born in France in 1985 to Algerian parents. She wrote her first novel, Just Like Tomorrow when she was 17 years old. It was a huge success in France, selling over 360,000 copies and translation rights around the world, and was shortlisted for the Young Minds Book Award 2006 and longlisted for the IndependentForeign Fiction Prize 2007. Her other novels are Dreams from the Endz and, most recently, Bar Balto.
Other Books by the Author
Men Don’t Cry
Dreamz from the Endz
Bar Balto
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