Faïza Guène – författare

Doria är 15 år och bor med sin mamma i en förort till Paris. Mamma är analfabet och jobbar som hotellstäderska. Pappa har flyttat tillbaka till Marocko och gift om sig. Hon lever i en värld där det alltid är ont om pengar, där alla kläder är begagnade och där socialtanterna vill väl men inte kan dölja sitt nedlåtande.

Motgångar hör till vardagen men Doria är smart och skärpt vilket tar henne framåt. När mamman börjar på en franskkurs för analfabeter och Doria får ett jobb börjar livet sakta men säkert räta ut sig.

"Det är rappt och smart, Guènes fantasi är ett fyrverkeri."

SvD

"Hennes röst har en oemotståndlig blandning av tillämpad tuffhet och känslig klarsyn..."

DN

"... en oemotståndlig och humoristisk berättelse om en del av samhället som fortfarande skildras allt för sällan i litteraturen."

Helsingborgs Dagblad

"... som en fransk version av Jonas Hassen Khemiris Ett öga rött... Det är en rapp och rolig roman som charmar med sin muntra svärta och bitska självironi."

Norrköpings Tidningar

"Det finns en härlig kraft i Kiffe Kiffe imorgon, det slår gnistor om såväl innehåll som form."

Upsala Nya Tidning

Yamina Taleb is approaching her seventieth birthday. Alternating fragments from Yamina's Algerian past with those of her Paris present, Discretion spans the history of colonial conflict from the Second World War to the present day. A tribute to mothers everywhere, it is also the story of a modern French family feeling their way through the puzzle of their history - and finding one another as they go along.

Yamina Taleb is approaching her seventieth birthday. Alternating fragments from Yamina's Algerian past with those of her Paris present, Discretion spans the history of colonial conflict from the Second World War to the present day. A tribute to mothers everywhere, it is also the story of a modern French family feeling their way through the puzzle of their history - and finding one another as they go along.

Joël, aka 'The Rink' (because his bald patch is shiny enough to skate on), the unpopular owner of the only bar in town has been murdered. There are so many suspects, it's not so much a question of who did kill him as who didn't. There's Magalie, the temperamental teenager obsessed with Paris Hilton; her troublemaker boyfriend, Tani; Tani's mother, Madame Levi; her unemployed, daytime-TV addicted husband; Yeznig, their younger son, who has learning difficulties but perfect memory recall; and newcomers Ali and Nadia, the Muslim twins struggling to fit in. As the tension mounts and we're still none the wiser, the ending is as tragic as it is unexpected.

Fifteen-year-old Doria isn't in a good place. Or to be precise: she's in the sadly misnamed Paradise Estate on the outskirts of Paris. Her father has gone off back Morocco 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 down-trodden and humiliated wins through and it looks like things can only get better.

Mourad and his family live in Nice. His retired father spends his days fixing up things in the backyard; his mother, bemoaning the loss of her natal village in North Africa. Dounia, the eldest, is a staunch feminist; Mina, the youngest, blushes when the scented shower gel ad comes on. Mourad is strangely torn between a desire for freedom and the fear of his worst nightmare: that of becoming an overweight bachelor with salt and pepper hair. On her eighteenth birthday, Dounia leaves home for good. She is no longer part of the family. Ten years later, Mourad's father has a stroke and makes his son promise to patch things up with his estranged sister, now a lawyer with an aspiring career in politics. Appointed to the Parisian suburbs as a teacher-in-training, Mourad tracks down Dounia and battles to span the gulf separating her and the rest of the family.