Ahlème, a young woman living on the outskirts of Paris, is trying to make a life out of the dreams she brought with her from Algeria and the reality she faces every day. Her father lost his job after an accident at his construction site. Her mother was lost to a massacre in Algeria. And her brother, Foued, boils with adolescent energy and teeters dangerously close to choosing a life of crime. As she wanders the streets of Paris looking for work, Ahlème negotiates the disparities between her dreams and her life, her youth and her responsibilities, the expectations of those back home and the limitations of life in France. With the same laugh-out-loud, razor-sharp humor that made
Kiffe Kiffe Tomorrow an international hit,
Some Dream for Fools shows Faïza Guène’s evolution as a novelist and reminds us of her extraordinary talent as she explores what happens to people when a lid is put on their dreams.
Industry Reviews
Praise for SOME DREAM FOR FOOLS
"Super-young, super-cool and fast becoming known as one of the hottest literary talents of multicultural Europe, Guene takes us on a tour of the tough suburbs of Paris and Algeria, where having the wrong-colour passport sentences you to a half-life. A funny, intimate and timely book by one of the stars of tomorrow." -- Sunday Telegraph, 50 of the best holiday reads (UK)
Praise for KIFFE KIFFE TOMORROW
NYTBR Editor's Choice
"[C]ompelling... reveals Guene to be a promising addition to the world's literary voices." -- San Francisco Chronicle "Remarkable . . . a glimpse of life beyond the Paris city limits and into a new, multicultural France . . . Heralded as, alternately, a Gallic version of White Teeth, The Catcher in the Rye and Bridget Jones's Diary . . . ." -- Salon Praise for SOME DREAM FOR FOOLS "Super-young, super-cool and fast becoming known as one of the hottest literary talents of multicultural Europe, Guene takes us on a tour of the tough suburbs of Paris and Algeria, where having the wrong-colour passport sentences you to a half-life. A funny, intimate and timely book by one of the stars of tomorrow." -- "Sunday Telegraph," 50 of the best holiday reads (UK)
Praise for KIFFE KIFFE TOMORROW
NYTBR Editor's Choice
"[C]ompelling... reveals Guene to be a promising addition to the world's literary voices." -- San Francisco Chronicle
"Remarkable . . . a glimpse of life beyond the Paris city limits and into a new, multicultural France . . . Heralded as, alternately, a Gallic version of "White Teeth, The Catcher in the Rye "and "Bridget Jones's Diary ." . . ." -- "Salon
"" Praise for SOME DREAM FOR FOOLS"Super-young, super-cool and fast becoming known as one of the hottest literary talents of multicultural Europe, Guene takes us on a tour of the tough suburbs of Paris and Algeria, where having the wrong-colour passport sentences you to a half-life. A funny, intimate and timely book by one of the stars of tomorrow." -- "Sunday Telegraph," 50 of the best holiday reads (UK)
Praise for KIFFE KIFFE TOMORROW
NYTBR Editor's Choice
"[C]ompelling... reveals Guene to be a promising addition to the world's literary voices." -- San Francisco Chronicle
"Remarkable . . . a glimpse of life beyond the Paris city limits and into a new, multicultural France . . . Heralded as, alternately, a Gallic version of "White Teeth, The Catcher in the Rye "and "Bridget Jones's Diary ." . . ." -- "Salon
"" "Interesting reading. . . ." Some Dream for Fools" is a witty story with elements of sadness that truly reflect life in all of its ups and downs, regardless of where you live or how much you earn. It is a short book but very much well worth the read." --Book Lovers Inc.
"An effortless enjoyable read." --"Belletrista" "[Ahleme's] description of these immigrant lines, of French officials, of career counselors insistent on finding each person a life mission, of giggling shopgirls dying their hair and wearing too-tight pants to attract men, of washed-out drunks playing games with coins and of more-bark-than-bite thugs who befriend her brother are refreshingly candid and often very funny and universal. She is amused by the absurd and shares her wry observations with an economy of words offered by someone who lives in two languages. She mocks a Western system so dependent on illogical order, so high-strung and fast-paced and so determined that each man and woman must have a higher purpose. Yet, she recognizes that this same excitement and potential of purpose are what keep her grounded in her new world and distance her from her old one. . . . [T]hanks to [Ahleme's] sincerity and her brilliant eye for detail, we, too, quickly understand that while hope may be a mirage, it is a source for humor, wonder and often dreams, even as she mocks them as only fit for fools. --"Chattanooga Times Free Press" "[B]oth "[Kiffe Kiffe Tomorrow] "and "[Some Dream For Fools] "are books that very successfully take us into another world - a world that no nation today can afford to ignore."--"Christian Science Monitor" "From Faiza Guene, France's literary wunderkind, a must-read about a girl in the not-so-chic suburbs of Paris." --"Marie Claire"
"Guene poignantly chronicles the lives of Algerian immigrant Ahleme and her family in their adopted France, delicately linking anguish and humor in a realistic portrayal of displacement. . . . Guene aptly depicts how small joys--glimpsing the cohesive family life that friend Auntie Mariatou leads, celebrating the Boss's birthday--take on weight as Ahleme dreams of the future."--"Publishers Weekly"
"[Guene's] voice is intoxicating. It's like no one else's writing. Young Algerian immigrant sensation Faiza Guene has conquered the French literary scene with her tough, honest style, her disarming candor and her mouth full of dirty street slang. . . . [She] writes with so much confidence and in-your-face self-knowledge that the reader laughs all the way through this too-short novel, coming away from it saddened by the grim terms of an immigrant's life but experiencing a rather pleasant after-effect, a cocky little flare-up of feisty defiance."--Nick DiMartino, "Shelf Awareness""Guene . . . has created a gutsy narrator . . . Ahleme is real, and her tenacity, uncompromising toughness and cynical sense of humor give the novel a hint of joy." --"Kirkus" "Super-young, super-cool and fast becoming known as one of the hottest literary talents of multicultural Europe, Guene takes us on a tour of the tough suburbs of Paris and Algeria, where having the wrong-colour passport sentences you to a half-life. Our heroine, 24-year-old Ahleme, is an unforgettable narrator, and this is much more than mere social commentary - it's a funny, intimate and timely book by one of the stars of tomorrow." -- "Sunday Telegraph," 50 of the best holiday reads (UK) "It's not an exaggeration to suggest that Guene is doing for the people, especially the youth, of the banlieu what James Kelman and Agnes Owens have done for the deprived of Glasgow's housing schemes; that is, give a voice to those who have been excluded from literature. Guene is very evidently a natural novelist, a young writer of real talent." --"Scotsman"
"A tough, funny and powerful book." -- "The Gloss" magazine"Miss Guene wrests the projects from their reputation as the "Far West" (of Paris) and restores their humanity without painting too rosy a picture--quite the contrary. With her, the France of the projects takes on the feeling of a well-known serial.... She captivates the reader with short scenes, like you would find in the theater. In her world, one keeps from screaming with rage by scoffing, mocking, everything trendy in the suburbs. The language she uses is a triumph among readers." - Le Nouvel Observateur (France)
"No matter how great the struggle, no misery underscores Faiza Guene's acidic humor. More enlightened sales clerk than a guard-dog, she distills the nuances and hopes in the cliches of the projects. Her creative language, a mixture of playful street slang, elegant sentences, and the African proverbs of Aunt Mariatou not only makes her an effective spokesperson for this world, but also an author entirely in her own right." -- L'Express (France) "Interesting reading. . . ."Some Dream for Fools"is a witty story with elements of sadness that truly reflect life in all of its ups and downs, regardless of where you live or how much you earn. It is a short book but very much well worth the read." --Book Lovers Inc.
"An effortless enjoyable read." --"Belletrista" "[Ahleme's] description of these immigrant lines, of French officials, of career counselors insistent on finding each person a life mission, of giggling shopgirls dying their hair and wearing too-tight pants to attract men, of washed-out drunks playing games with coins and of more-bark-than-bite thugs who befriend her brother are refreshingly candid and often very funny and universal. She is amused by the absurd and shares her wry observations with an economy of words offered by someone who lives in two languages. She mocks a Western system so dependent on illogical order, so high-strung and fast-paced and so determined that each man and woman must have a higher purpo
