Al Ghumama Al Hamra

Highlights Essential reading about the challenges of contemporary Arab life in France A passionate and powerful novel about the triumph of personal ambition over tragedy Now available for the first time in Arabic ‘I come from a world where adolescence does not exist.’At the age of 15, the narrator decides to leave his native Algeria and smuggle himself to France. For two years his determination to succeed overcomes all barriers, until he is confronted by the greatest challenge of all. One morning a ‘red veil’ falls over his eyes. The narrator’s response to the loss of his sight lies in his aptitude for numbers, his passion for literature and his love for the young women in his life. Based on the author’s own life, this is a powerful account of the resilience of a formidable adolescent. Bachir Kerroumi Born in 1959, Bachir Kerroumi is an economist at the City Hall in Paris and is the founder of a training programme for sighted and non-sighted. Le voile rouge is his first novel.