Sign in with Facebook
Loading...
15th out of 77 books
—
8 voters
The Lovers of Algeria: A Novel
A breathless story of love and survival in war-torn Algeria-past and present
The devil has entered our country, and his footprints are everywhere.
Nine-year-old Jallal is old enough to know that his life in Algeria is precarious at best. Having run away from home, he survives by selling peanuts and single cigarettes on the street. The proposal by the elderly Swiss woman name...more
The devil has entered our country, and his footprints are everywhere.
Nine-year-old Jallal is old enough to know that his life in Algeria is precarious at best. Having run away from home, he survives by selling peanuts and single cigarettes on the street. The proposal by the elderly Swiss woman name...more
Paperback, 288 pages
Published
August 1st 2004
by Graywolf Press
(first published 1998)
Friend Reviews
To see what your friends thought of this book,
please sign up.
Community Reviews
(showing
1-30
of
232)
It's hard to say I "liked" this book, because there is a lot of violence in the book (not so much to the personal characters, as political and religious violence that takes place in Alergia in the background to the story and swirling around and in and out of the story), but, well, it's a good book. The main story of the book of a love story that starts in the 1940s and involves the unexpected charcaters of a very poor Berber living in Algiers and a displaced French woman no longer in a traveling...more
While the theme of this book (how love endures over the years despite horrible conditions) might sound a little shop-worn, the way Benalek handled it certainly was not! And although I was often frustrated trying to keep up with the various plot lines that kept back tracking and over-lapping (making me wish the author would have simply told his story chronologically) I kept reading because I was both fascinated and horrified by what I was discovering about life in war-torn Algeria and how badly i...more
view 1 comment
This one was a pleasant surprise. It's not great literature, but it proved to be an enjoyable story with some redeeming social value, and my expectations were not high (you just never know with obscure translations).
The Lovers of Algeria follows a star-crossed couple--Anna, a Swiss acrobat who initially travels to Algeria in the early 1940s, and Nassreddine, an Algerian man--through most of the 20th century. The timeline jumps back and forth, and while I was at first annoyed when I'd been readin...more
The Lovers of Algeria follows a star-crossed couple--Anna, a Swiss acrobat who initially travels to Algeria in the early 1940s, and Nassreddine, an Algerian man--through most of the 20th century. The timeline jumps back and forth, and while I was at first annoyed when I'd been readin...more
NO SPOILERS!
Last night I finished this book. I simply had to digest it a bit before summarizing my views. I have chosen three stars, but pay attention when I say this is definitely a book to read! It does have faults. These weighed in when I reduced the four to three stars. The book very well describes the pandemonium of Algerian life during the 1900s from the pov of Arabs. This is how life was for those down and under. In this is thrown a Swiss who loves an Arab and she is too drowned in the ho...more
Last night I finished this book. I simply had to digest it a bit before summarizing my views. I have chosen three stars, but pay attention when I say this is definitely a book to read! It does have faults. These weighed in when I reduced the four to three stars. The book very well describes the pandemonium of Algerian life during the 1900s from the pov of Arabs. This is how life was for those down and under. In this is thrown a Swiss who loves an Arab and she is too drowned in the ho...more
The Lovers of Algeria is a horrifyingly vivid, achingly tragic novel with, at its core, a fragile and imperfect love story spanning decades of loss, relocation, and hopeful discovery in its North African setting. The story, told in overlapping flashbacks and contemporary (1997) scenes, is too involved to recite, but it should be enough to say that Anna, a Swiss gaouria, and Arab Nassreddine have an unconventional love affair that begins when they are young adults and continues, or tries to conti...more
Maybe I am too driven by the Rodney King line, but the fact that this book is a best seller in Algeria is good enough reason as any to spend some time with it. It’s a fast read, and if hard pressed to come up with a one liner to best describe the story the sentence would include something about combining Dr. Zhivago with Water for Elephants and then setting the whole thing in North Africa with one disclaimer “The Squeamish Need not Apply”.
Then I keep coming back to my favorite paraphrased quote...more
Then I keep coming back to my favorite paraphrased quote...more
Jun 29, 2009
Howes164
added it
More history to learn about this country and what its people have suffered through French occupation and WWII. You'll love the characters and can't wait to find out what happens in the end, and how they got there in the first place.
This was a huge bestseller in Algeria and I desperately crave a movie version. Unbearably romantic. The story begins with an old Swiss woman in search of... something... in Algeria. It turns out she was an acrobat in a traveling circus during the Algerian War of Independence (late 1950s) and ended up stranded in that nation, where she fell unexpected in love. This story is told parallel to the old lady's story; a parallel is drawn between revolutionary violence and modern terrorism. But more tha...more
On doit admettre que l'histoire trace un chemin peu probable...ce qui n'a pas du tout m'empêchait de le dévorer. Une belle histoire, bien racontée et en même temps assez éducatif pour l'Algérie des deux époques.
Loved the story, what a different world. The author did a fantastic job of putting you there. So sad that there is so much hate and the ill treatment of others... and it still goes on.
I hesitated reading a book about Algeria, because I know of so many real horror stories that happened there. But trying to follow the Middle East Reading Challenge, I had to dare.
Wow, that was quite a book! Very heart-breaking with beautiful human characters focused on loving, come what may, with in the background yes the all too common horror stories and what’s going on there: terrorism, relationships between white people and natives, government corruption, dealings between Algerian and French...more
Wow, that was quite a book! Very heart-breaking with beautiful human characters focused on loving, come what may, with in the background yes the all too common horror stories and what’s going on there: terrorism, relationships between white people and natives, government corruption, dealings between Algerian and French...more
just excellent. The sort of book that needs to be read over the weekend because you are unlikely to sleep until you are finished.
love love love! Perfect combination of romance and suspense...Also true to history
Long, disturbing, sad but intriguing. Very violent scenes were a bit much for me.
This is a love story, but it's set in Algeria during the war between the French and the FLN in the 1950's and in the 1990's - marked by horrific violence resulting from the GIA and GSPC war against the government. The terrible things that happen to and around the main characters cause the reader to be thankful for small acts of kindness and success in their travails. Overall, this book is well worth reading, and has certainly inspired me to start investigating other books (fiction and non-fictio...more
Apr 13, 2010
Andrea Douglass
is currently reading it
My two favorite cultures to study colliding in this book (french/arabic).
truly cruel and heartbreaking story...
Locale, locale, locale. Historically, very interesting although the plot is a bit unbelievable.
Haunting story
ALGERIA - Brutal.
This story is heartbreaking. It’s romantic and tragic and cruel, but comforting. All hopes are not lost even through years and wars, there’s always a possibility for the impossible. It came to be at a time that was special and will always have a unique place in my heart for the hope that I was lingering to.
I just could not get into this. I had it with me during a cross-country trip, and it didn't do it for me. It's possible that it was more a result of the circumstances that I was dealing with as opposed to the book itself.
The book tells an engaging and human story set amidst the unspeakable horrors of wartime brutality, scars of colonialism, racism, hypocrisy and fundamentalism, yet ends with hope. (Rather like the foil to Camus).
Aug 27, 2011
Lisa
added it
One of those lovely, yearning, deliciously epic books. It has such a looping scope, but manages to be grounded in the muck as well. Very romantic "life is cruel and powerful, but beautiful" message
An excellent book that shows a sad reality in a country without law
Apr 28, 2013
Siobhan Ali Chikh
marked it as to-read
Apr 25, 2013
Mina Abdi
marked it as to-read
Apr 21, 2013
Cindy Benabderrahman
marked it as to-read
Apr 21, 2013
Muhammad Seemab
marked it as to-read
There are no discussion topics on this book yet.
Be the first to start one »
