France, Story of a Childhood

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Thanks to Alyson Waters and Emmanuelle Ertel for their support and insight, Allison Schein and Chris Clarke for their honest feedback, and the PEN/Heim Translation Fund for its generous grant. Finally, I must thank my treasured readers: Diane, Mohamed, and Anthony.

France, Story of a Childhood—the third in a loose trilogy of novels by Zahia Rahmani—is difficult to categorize. Often described as fictionalized autobiography (autofiction), the work has a poetic, nonlinear style more resonant of fiction than of nonfiction. Inspired by foreign literature, music, and art, particularly from the United States, the author-narrator employs restrained yet lyrical prose to describe her difficult childhood in an adopted country, France, all the while paying homage to her Algerian heritage. Historical events figure prominently against the cascade of childhood memories revealed by the narrator over a single day as she cares for her convalescing mother.

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