One of the winners of English PEN Award, Discretion (in the original French, La Discrétion) by Faïza Guène, translated from French by Sarah Ardizzone, shed light to the episode of French colonial past in Algeria, through the story of a family of Algerian origin living in France.
Yamina moved from Algeria to France, as newly wed with an Algerian man working in the construction industry. Daughter of a fighter for Algeria´s independence. After a rough start, now in her 70s she learned to be content together with her daughters and son. It is not necessarily what she would call home, but as she will ackwnoledge by the end of the story, home is where her family is. However, her children, born in France, with long summer vacations spent in their home country, do react to the everyday shift in race relationships and daily racism. They cannot be content, no matter how much they love their family. As many of the second-generation immigrants, they refuse to choose silence.
The story of the children, each different although not excessively revolutionary - as the publishing industry may expect sometimes from characters belonging to this category - in their separate note from the majority they live in, reflects different fragments of immigrant existence. Yamina, a girl and a woman and a mother who saw too much, but survives life with grace, modestly and humbly. It´s one of my favorite women characters in a long time, for her gentle soul and natural wisdom of accepting fate.
Although I rarely read books written in French in English - or any kind of - translation, I can only admire the beautiful rendition by Sarah Ardizzone, a well-deserved. There are a couple of Algerian writers I´ve descovered lately, but Guène is one of the brilliant, and hopefully I will read some of her other books soon.
Rating: 4.5 stars
Disclaimer: Book offered by the publisher in exchange for an honest review
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