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Our community recommends a new book every day.
Today, "Stardust" by Léonora Miano published on August 31, 2022 by Éditions Grasset.
Alain Raimbault, writer, blogger and contributor to the 20 Minutes
Books reading group
, recommends
Stardust
by Léonora Miano, published on August 31, 2022 by Éditions Grasset.
His favorite quote:
“The young woman eats while looking around her.
There is a majority of not-whites.
A majority of women who will not understand Madame A's language. Overwhelmed by a world that is changing too quickly.
Poorly placed within a compartmentalised society.
Pointed out by a system that refused to fully welcome them.
It's their offspring running around.
They have already given up.
Education is no longer their responsibility.
They are in an underground France from where they hear the rumor of the country they thought they had found: the one where they were to become modern, developed beings.
»
Why this book?
Because the author makes us penetrate into the intimacy of a CHRS
(Accommodation and social reintegration center) which looks like the last stage before ending up on the street.
Women whose story hasn't really turned out the way they hoped live in this overcrowded place waiting for better days, or waiting for nothing more.
They come mainly from Africa and have all experienced troubled destinies, men who have abandoned them, broken families.
Each bears immeasurable misfortune, and many live there with their young children.
Because it's a heartbreaking novel, a long cry of pain
on every page, and how could it be otherwise in such a place, forgotten by all?
Louise, the main character refuses to give up hope for a better life and will try to find another place to stay.
There is no solidarity between the women who all have pain in common, and receiving outside help is like an obstacle course.
Louise clings to her child to never give up.
His daughter will know a life other than hers.
It must.
So she fights.
Because in the foreword, Léonora Miano reveals to us
that she herself lived in such a place when she was "a young mother of 23, without a home or residence permit" and that this novel, she wrote it twenty years ago.
With this information in mind, the reader understands that the line between fiction and reality is very thin, and he especially feels the authentic pain of an author who knew how to transform her painful memories into a moving work of art.
The essentials in 2 minutes
The plot.
Louise is admitted to CHRS, and will do everything to get out.
Little by little, she discovers the tragic fate of the women lodged with her.
Characters.
Louise, a young homeless mother, and her daughter Bliss.
The other women who live in the CHRS.
Places.
Paris.
A CHRS (Accommodation and social reintegration center)
The time.
Late 20th century.
The author.
Born in Douala (Cameroon) in 1973, Léonora Miano is a novelist, playwright and essayist.
She is the author of some twenty books and has received prestigious literary prizes,
This book was read with
the feeling of suffocation on each page, of not being able to breathe, of being a bit stuck in this CHRS with Louise.
It is a very strong novel which describes an unfortunately true and unknown world.
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