story of Naïma, a young French-Algerian
In the “Art of Losing” (L’art de perdre), Alice Zeniter recounts the story of Naïma, a young French-Algerian, who uncovers her family history in Algeria, her family’s secrets and losses from the struggle for Algerian independence to her life in modern day Paris.
In the “Art of Losing”, Alice Zeniter plunges us into a family saga
with its roots in French Algeria from the 1930s to present day
Paris.
It starts with Ali, the grandfather, forced by events in
Algeria to become a “harki” (an Algerian who worked for and
supported the French during the Algerian War of Independence) to
Naïma, his grand-daughter in Paris, who defiantly returns to Algeria
to explore her history, which her family has consigned to silence.
The novel takes us beyond the family events to a picture of
the Algerian people torn apart by the issue of independence from
France. It details the hidden history of the “harkis”, how they were
abandoned by France after Algerian independence; how, once safely in
France and out of Algeria where they faced deadly retribution from
the new Algerian regime, they were ghettoised by the French
authorities who preferred to pretend they did not exist.
Naïma’s quest is one of identity; like many of her generation, she
has no links to her older relatives’ country of birth and is often
regarded as a foreigner in France, the country of her birth. The
events may be turbulent, sometimes violent, but this is not a gloomy
book. It is easy to immerse yourself into Naïma’s family with the
lively portrayal of character against the descriptions of the
Algerian countryside. The book takes you into the mountains of
Kabylie, the chaotic camps for the Algerians “repatriated” (official
misnomer) from Algeria to France, their tower-block ghettos in
Normandy and the art world of Paris.
Spanning three generations across 70 years, The Art of Losing tells
the story of how people carry on in the face of loss: the loss of a
country, of an identity, of a family history. It is a story of
colonisation and immigration and how things we have lost or left
behind remain within us.
In 2017 “L’art de perdre” won the literary prizes Goncourt des
lycéens and the Prix Littéraire Du Monde