While set in Paris and focusing on Moroccan immigrants every teenager will relate instantly to all that Doria is experiencing and feeling. With shades of a young Bridget Jones she is determined to not to be down trodden even if her favourite soap star has just ‘come out’ and the only school that will accept her is for future hairdressers. Funny, tragic and well worth reading.
Fifteen year old Doria is in the misnamed Paradise Estate on the outskirts of Paris. Her father has gone off back to Morocco to find a wife who can give him a boy. This novel tells the story of Doria who 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.
Faïza Guène is now twenty years old and is currently a university student. Like her heroine, she is from an immigrant North African family living on a housing estate outside Paris. She has written a screenplay for and directed a short film, which received funding from several prestigious cultural organisations in France.
