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Kiffe Kiffe Demain

Faïza Guène

3.43 · Rating details · 2,477 ratings · 256 reviews

"The Paradise projects are only a few metro stops from Paris, but here it's a whole different kind of France. Doria's father, the Beard, has headed back to their hometown in Morocco, leaving her and her mom to cope with their mektoub - their destiny - alone. They have a little help - from a social worker sent by the city, a psychiatrist sent by the school, and a thug frien ...more

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Mass Market Paperback, 188 pages

Published January 9th 2005 by Le Livre de Poche (first published 2004)

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Jan 22, 2017 Fabian rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Tres magnifique! What a surprise!

I am headoverheels in love with this novel! Unputdownable, it is extremely hard to find fault with this wondrous tale by a 19 year-old writer. It will make you laugh like no other book in recent memory. No wonder the French went gaga over this new Sagan, this new Salinger. Her novel is worth finding, reading & sharing. I wanna thank an old friend whose favorite book was the French version of this unique novel. Definitely my favorite read of the year thus far!

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Sep 12, 2020 L A i N E Y ~back in a bit~ rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: reviewed, humor-i-get, best-voice, contemporary, ya, in-translation

“‘Why would he give a shit about voting?’ The guy already has to fight daily just to survive, so you can forget about his duties as a citizen .. If his situation improved a little, maybe he would want to get out and vote.

I wonder if this is why these housing developments are left to decay, because few people around here vote. You have no political usefulness if you don’t vote.”

Our narrator, the very acerbic Doria, is surrounded by culturally ignorant people in her daily life while at home sh

“‘Why would he give a shit about voting?’ The guy already has to fight daily just to survive, so you can forget about his duties as a citizen .. If his situation improved a little, maybe he would want to get out and vote.

I wonder if this is why these housing developments are left to decay, because few people around here vote. You have no political usefulness if you don’t vote.”

Our narrator, the very acerbic Doria, is surrounded by culturally ignorant people in her daily life while at home she lives among her “own people” you could say. Doria and her mother are living in France after immigrating from Morocco along with her awful, sexist father. He eventually moved back to have another family and finally has his own son just as he’s always dreamt. Good riddance I say, they are better off without him anyway.

“Dad, he wanted a son. For his pride, his reputation, his family honor, and I’m sure lots of other stupid reasons.”

See?

What a terrible waste of a ‘sperm donor’.

“Our generation’s lucky because you get to choose who you’re going to love for the rest of your life. Or the rest of the year. Depends on the couple.”

Doria, she gravitates toward thinking of her life in terms of movies, those thoughts are quite funny.

“It’s like a film script and we’re the actors. Trouble is, our scriptwriter’s got no talent. And he’s never heard of happily ever after.”

She’s moody at times like all teenagers are but she loves her mom and wants to better their lives and she got spunk to go with it - I’m sure both these women will do just fine on their own.

“Later when my breasts are bigger and I’m a little bit more intelligent, like when I’m adult, I’ll join up with a group that helps people...

Knowing there are people who need you and you can be useful to them, it’s really cool.

One of these days, if I don’t need my blood or one of my kidneys, I could donate them to the sick people who’ve had their names on the lists for forever. But still, I wouldn’t do it for a clear conscience or so I could look at myself in the mirror when I’m taking off my makeup after work, but because I really wanted to do it.”

...more

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Sep 15, 2015 emma rated it it was ok

Shelves: reviewed, eh, 2-and-a-half-stars, non-ya

i read this book in a french class in high school, and my fondest (and only) memory of it is that we convinced our friend who wasn't taking french that this was called "Chief Keef Demain," and was a memoir of Chief Keef's time married to his first wife, a french woman (pictured on the cover).

this was four years ago and i am still laughing just thinking of it.

(this is part of a project i pick up every year or so where i review books i read a million years ago because i am stubborn.) ...more

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Apr 10, 2012 Whitaker rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction-1950-and-after, _français, z_2012-read, france

The title of this book, Kiffe kiffe demain, must give translators nightmares. The problem is that it’s a play on words, and not just on any normal words, but ghetto slang. “Kif kif” is vernacular roughly meaning “same ‘ole, same ‘ole”; “kiffer” is vernacular meaning “to like/love”. The title has a bittersweet tang derived from the opposing feelings of despair (“same ‘ole shit tomorrow”) and hope (“loving tomorrow”). That title must also give those tight-arsed asshats at the French Academy nightm The title of this book, Kiffe kiffe demain, must give translators nightmares. The problem is that it’s a play on words, and not just on any normal words, but ghetto slang. “Kif kif” is vernacular roughly meaning “same ‘ole, same ‘ole”; “kiffer” is vernacular meaning “to like/love”. The title has a bittersweet tang derived from the opposing feelings of despair (“same ‘ole shit tomorrow”) and hope (“loving tomorrow”). That title must also give those tight-arsed asshats at the French Academy nightmares. “But zis is ghetto Frrench! Quelle horreur!”

The book is set in the banlieues, which a dictionary will misleadingly translate as “suburbs”. This is not, however, Desperate Housewives territory: middle-class angst is more the preserve of the ill-de-la-cité. The banlieues are the French version of community housing with all the attendant connotations that entails. Its American equivalent is Harlem or the ghetto, and yes, the ambivalence (or just downright racism) of the French to these members of the population is their equivalent of the white-black divide in America. So much for liberté, égalité, et fraternité eh?

Call the book a French mash-up, if you will, of Catcher in the Rye and The Invisible Man. It’s got that perfectly realised adolescent tone of scorn and angst, and the well-aimed barbs at the system of racism. It’s not a one-sided polemic, however. Doria, the heroine, is as critical of her fellow residents with their sexism and narrow-mindedness as she is of French racism. It’s also more hopeful than that pairing of American classics would suggest. As much as Guène punctures French racism, she also acknowledges how the French social safety net can be helpful: for example, Doria’s mother is able to get a better job through free literacy classes provided by the state.

The comparison with Catcher in the Rye and The Invisible Man is as much to suggest that this work deserves to become a French classic. Not because it’s “Lit-ruh-chuh”, but almost precisely because it’s not. It’s a blast of fresh air through the self-satisfied, whiney navel-gazing going on in a lot of celebrated current French novels. For all the adolescent POV, the novel is refreshingly unself-centered. And in daring to put forth for the very first time in French literature a poor marginalised heroine like Doria front and centre of a literary work as a person wholly deserving of an equal place in the country of the bleu-blanc-rouge, Guène follows in the footsteps of Victor Hugo and Collette. And like her predecessors, she deserves as much to be called French as they are.

Check out the Guardian interview with Faïza Guène, and recent reportage by Al Jazeera on the problem of discrimination in France.

* Best line in the book for me: "En France, trois mots en "iste", ça suffit pour qu'on donne ton nom à un lycée, une rue, une bibliothèque ou une station de métro." (In France, [if you can be described with] three words with the suffix "ist" (e.g., journalist, socialist, unionist), that's all it takes for your name to be given to a school, a road, a library, or a subway station.) ...more

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Aug 24, 2018 Antonomasia rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: women-in-translation, young-adult, novella, france, iffp, mena, francophonie, decade-2000s, 2018, contemp-alevel-texts

[3.5] I can see why this is taught in schools (as another reviewer notes, it's a French A-Level text in England), but am surprised, in a good way, that it was longlisted, back in 2007, for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize (precursor to the current format of the Booker International).

Translated, it's a very easy read, basically YA, though for a reader of French around A-Level standard, the slang will take a bit of getting used to. Subject-wise, it technically has that realist 'worthiness' c [3.5] I can see why this is taught in schools (as another reviewer notes, it's a French A-Level text in England), but am surprised, in a good way, that it was longlisted, back in 2007, for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize (precursor to the current format of the Booker International).

Translated, it's a very easy read, basically YA, though for a reader of French around A-Level standard, the slang will take a bit of getting used to. Subject-wise, it technically has that realist 'worthiness' characteristic of the IFFP - it's about an impoverished French-Moroccan teenage girl living on a tough estate on the outskirts of Paris - but it's not in the least dry, so 'worthy' wasn't an adjective that occurred to me until afterwards. This book didn't exist when I was doing A-levels, but Kiffe Kiffe plus an older classic would be a better choice than two of the latter, and certainly gives a less rarefied view of France than the likes of Marcel Pagnol.

It's also potentially educational in that there's a lot to look up about French pop culture of the late 90s and early 00s, the sort of casual references you might get IRL: e.g. saying someone looks like a certain daytime TV presenter. (The book makes sense without knowing all these references, but I enjoy finding out this sort of stuff. If you like to look things up as you go, it means that this otherwise very straightforward book might not be the most convenient read for public transport.)

Narrator Doria's voice may grate for some readers (and the ending is perhaps a bit too neat in that YA way). I have never understood why so many older child and teenage narrators pepper their stories with "I wish [really bad thing] would happen to [so and so]". I don't remember thinking this about more than one or two people (and it's not like I was having a great time socially or at home), and I can't ever remember other kids saying it. In books I've read in adulthood, I've usually thought of it as lazy shorthand for a more inchoate childish and youthful dissatisfaction, but as Faïza Guène wrote this when she was still a teenager herself, and she grew up on an estate like Doria's, where many people have far greater material hardship than most of my old classmates, I'll give her the benefit of the doubt in the way that I wouldn't to a well-meaning middle-class 45 year old trying to write the same character.

Some contemporary readers may feel that a certain plot point needs more exploration and discussion, especially for teen readers: (view spoiler) But to make it just about the character neglects changing general norms - which have possibly changed more among the young and among Anglo-American liberals than elsewhere. And I find it very interesting as an example of inner emotions changing rapidly - seeing in action the stuff covered by the scholarly field of the history of emotions I referred to the other day in reviewing Lucy Worsley's Jane Austen at Home. It was sad to see how often Doria referred to commercial women's magazines as ways she and others learned about life and relationships (and to shape their views of what was and was not appropriate to feel and do) but also sadly accurate for pre-www girls who had negligible useful support from people they knew. I was kind of glad magazines have waned, but on the consumerism and fashion front, they seemed quite benign compared with what you hear about Instagram and teens now.

I found Kiffe Kiffe really interesting. Contemporary fiction about immigrants, and about poorer people (who aren't struggling creatives) in other European countries is something I've long wanted to read more of, but not much is translated. (And when it is, it's rarely as approachable as this.) ...more

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Jul 25, 2012 Nafiza rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: read-2012, genre-ya-in-translation

This coming of age novel was recommended to me by Rida and while I didn’t like it as much as I had hoped to, I did find it very stark and honest in its portrayal of life on the poor side in Paris, France. I don’t know about you guys but I have a very selective way of thinking about Paris. To me, it is the city of lights, romance and fluffy pastries. Before I read this book, I didn’t think about the people who populated the city, who breathe, live and animate this city. There’s this authenticity ...more

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May 17, 2007 Meaghan rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: comingofage

I was going to write a review about this book, but then I remembered that I don't remember anything about it. I read it last month and it has already slipped from my mind.

I love coming of age novels, but this protagonist is barely memorable. ...more

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Aug 17, 2017 mimi rated it really liked it · review of another edition

*4 stars*

I highly recommend this book to better understand the situation in which many young people who live in the suburbs are, especially the ones in Paris.
Faïza Guène writes her story in a realistic and in a very sweet way, that means the story of a girl who lives in the Paris’ suburbs and go to a school that she doesn't care about, hates her father for what he has done and tries to pull at the end of the month with the mother's meager salary.
The story is characterized by other characters, b ...more

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Jan 23, 2021 Stacia rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: africa, europe, 2021, racism-tyranny-social-justice-etc, middle-east

The author wrote this when she was 19 years old and it definitely has a YA simplicity and feel to it. I saw some comparisons to The Catcher in the Rye but I think it may more closely align with S.E. Hinton's The Outsiders, both from the standpoint of a young author and for characters who are existing on the margins of society.

My daughter read this early on in college, having a professor for a core class (where the book was read in English) who also happened to be a French professor for my daught ...more

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Nov 12, 2009 Jane rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: passed-on

“I wonder why they call them wisdom teeth… The more they grow, the more you understand stuff? Personally, I’ve learned that learning hurts.”

It’s an understandable sentiment. Fifteen year old Doria’s life is far from perfect. She lives with her mother in a tower block on the outskirts of Paris.

Her father has returned to his Moroccan birthplace to find a new wife who will provide him with the son he so badly wants. And so mother and daughter are left to subsist on the meagre wages that a woman who ...more

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Nov 26, 2008 Drew rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

Finished reading this book Friday morning on my metro ride in to work. This was a great book for the metro since you could pick it up and put it down without losing any train of thought or end during a critical piece of analysis. Not a great book at all. It was cool, since the perspective was intriguing: French-born Moroccan adolescent girl growing up in poor suburbs around Paris with her Moroccan mother and absent father.

The timing of this book was good, given the riots last year in the suburbs ...more

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Jan 20, 2010 Marie rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

A very accurate representation of the life of Arabic Immigrants in France. Written in the no nonsense a bit rash style of a teenager the book grabs you from beginning to end. Reading about the conditions of life for some of these unfortunate women only makes you want to change things for the unfortunate immigrants.
A fresh look on immigration and on surviving even in difficult conditions.
The voice of the young girl is sometimes angry but it is an anger that is directed to the injustices that ar ...more

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Jan 02, 2013 April rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: classism, diaspora, humor, racism, heart, strong-female-lead, woc, coming-of-age, generation-y, urban

This book is basically perfect. Doria (the teenaged narrator) is witty; sarcastic; cyncical, yet a dreamer; funny, in a primarily ironic way; insightful; tender; irreverent; and swears brilliantly. Like seriously, this book--ugh, I love it so much. Doria has an Eeyore soul but it so terribly endearing... Great perspective on class, gender and xenophobia in France, but given in a mostly humorous instead of tragic way. It's an easy read and a fresh voice--I guarantee it'll make you chuckle. RECOMM ...more

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Jul 15, 2008 Ciara rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Recommends it for: its young adult readership base, immigrant teens in france

Shelves: read-in-2008

i wanted to love this book...but i didn't. it's a novel about a teenage girl living in the projects outside paris with her mom. the cast of surrpunding characters is a motley crew of old people, immigrants, people struggling to get by. i guess maybe this is supposed to be a coming-of-age novel, as the protaganist comesover the course of the book to make some strides in having a better relationship with her mom & doing the work necessary to improve her station in life, which may not have happened ...more

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Jan 10, 2013 Cheryl rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, africa, global-intrigue, europe

"Last week, Mme DuThingy, the social worker from city hall, came back to the house. This woman, she's really a shit-stirrer. Mom had hardly opened the door when she flashed her perfect white teeth and started up:

'Oh dear, you don't look so good...ooh la la."

If you like the fiery kind of protagonists you see in some YA novels, you will like fifteen-year old Doria. Originally from Morocco, Doria lives with her illiterate mom in the projects of France (in a North African community) a few miles from ...more

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Dec 13, 2012 Lily rated it it was ok · review of another edition

I honestly don't know what to think about this book. It's French (thus the title) but I mean I read it and understood it (I'm doing A-Level French and I'm going to be studying French at Cardiff Uni this year) but the main character was so hard to wrap my head around. Her entire perception of the world was full of complaints about everything, it's not until we're over halfway through the book that she begins to show real emotion and it just made me so angry.
It was readable but frustrating - in a ...more

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Apr 23, 2015 Annabelle rated it really liked it · review of another edition

A sweet confection of teenage angst by a Algerian descent teenager living in the projects outside of Paris. We all need to read it to understand the massacre at Charlie Hebdo. Amidst racism, poverty, and growing up with a single mom, Doria,, the main character, writes in a smart, snarky, sardonic voice, making fun but in an enjoyable way of teachers, neighbors, will focusing hate at her father who has abandoned her. There is love in her mother and friends, and she ends up with a teenage love.I l ...more

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Nov 15, 2006 Elizabeth rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Recommends it for: The curious and open minded

Shelves: fiction, france, middleeast, youngauthors

Another copy I picked up at the office...turned out to be fascinating. This is the story of a young Algerian girl who lives in the slums surrounding Paris. I've never read a story about this group in France--preferring to focus on the artisan and historical stories--and I found the story to be full of rage, Americanisms and sadness. A compelling peek into a world that I knew nothing about. Sad really. ...more

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Feb 06, 2015 Zoe rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Somewhat bleak but interesting story, doubly worth reading since the shootings at Charlie Hebdo

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Apr 28, 2020 Maeve rated it liked it · review of another edition

Had to study this for A level French, wasn't a fan then, but having given myself the time to read it properly and understand it, it's not too bad of a book. I'm not a fan of the use of slang but it's good to read it in big chunks as the chapters are quite short. I don't really like the main character, but the story is interesting ...more

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Oct 17, 2017 Sydney H rated it liked it · review of another edition

For a french book this really wasn’t bad at all but i still hate reading in french so 3 stars it is

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Apr 28, 2020 Lauren Beaver rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: class

A story about growth and self discovery!!!

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Jun 09, 2018 Leigh Anne rated it really liked it · review of another edition

A book to kiffer, no kif.

Doria is a French teen, born to Moroccan immigrants. Her dad went back home because he wanted a son, and Doria's mom, Yasmina, couldn't have any more children. This leaves the mother and daughter on their own to cope with poverty, anti-immigrant sentiments, social workers, and job-hunting. For Doria there's all the usual teen stuff as well: school, boys, wearing the right clothes, or being mocked for lack thereof. It's a lot to cope with, but Doria's tough, and she and h A book to kiffer, no kif.

Doria is a French teen, born to Moroccan immigrants. Her dad went back home because he wanted a son, and Doria's mom, Yasmina, couldn't have any more children. This leaves the mother and daughter on their own to cope with poverty, anti-immigrant sentiments, social workers, and job-hunting. For Doria there's all the usual teen stuff as well: school, boys, wearing the right clothes, or being mocked for lack thereof. It's a lot to cope with, but Doria's tough, and she and her mom will be okay. At least, she's gambling on it.

Guène, herself the child of Algerian immigrants, also grew up in the projects just outside Paris, lending Doria's experiences the ring of gritty truth. You don't have to know much about French history or culture, because Guène explains it all for you beautifully, but if you do know from the Algerian war and the current racism in the banlieues, there's an added layer here to savor.

The Arab immigrant community Doria lives in is rich with all the good and bad aspects of their culture: parties, foods, henna, yes, but also heavy restrictions on women and girls, and
homophobia to boot. Yasmina, who cannot read or write, seems helpless as things go on around her; luckily, the state pays for a lot of supports, like a therapist for Doria to talk to, and social workers who nudge Doria in directions she may not otherwise have taken, even if they are mostly phoning in their jobs. Doria rarely gets upset about anything, taking the drug dealing and carjacking that surrounds her as simply things people do to survive. She's pretty pissed at her father, though, and from time to time feels helpless in the face of her poverty.

The ending is positive and satisfying, while at the same time being realistic. The title is a wonderful play on the double meaning of some French slang, which I won't spoil for you, as it takes away from reading the book. Doria's voice is one that will resonate with many disaffected teens, and will perhaps give them perspective on their own relatively privileged situations. It's a good pick for adults who enjoy world fiction, too, though they may become a bit impatient with Doria's boy crushes after a while. All in all, Guène has delivered a great novel that makes for a quick and satisfying summer read. Recommended for medium-to-large YA collections, and adult collections where world fiction in translation is popular. ...more

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Dec 08, 2013 Kelly rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: ya-fiction, read-in-2013

What a little gem of a book. This was published adult but has mega YA appeal, as it's about a 15-year-old girl growing up in the projects about half an hour from Paris. She's dealing with her father ditching her and her mother, who is illiterate, as he heads back to Morocco in order to attempt marrying a woman who can sire him a son (that's all that matters in his culture). It deals with urban issues in a way that's cross-cultural, about the challenges of growing up between cultures, and what it ...more

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Oct 22, 2019 Brook Bhagat rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Literature, by definition, has some wisdom, some meaning beneath the surface; we call it literature and put in on a different shelf because it contains a secret, a way to live as a better or happier human being. One example of such literature is Kiffe Kiffe Tomorrow, by Faiza Guene.

Kiffe Kiffe Tomorrow, translated from the original French by Sarah Adams, is a coming-of-age story written in the wickedly funny and toughly tender voice of Doria, a Moroccan immigrant living in a crumbling housing pr ...more

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Jun 22, 2016 L rated it liked it

Shelves: for-school, ya, french, eh, pretty-darn-good-book, read-2016, realistic-fiction, 3-and-a-half-stars, best-titles, i-don-t-know-how-to-feel-here

I actually really enjoyed this book for the most part. I'm not the best judge of how well written something in French is, but this was very interesting and had its beautiful moments. However, the end just lost my interest. It felt like each of the last few chapters were selecting a character arc and wrapping it up neatly, just for the sake of having everything end, even though a lot of these endings didn't really make sense to me. (view spoiler) ...more

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Dec 20, 2008 Flora rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I enjoyed this book a lot. The plot is pretty predictable - it is nothing we haven't read before in other coming-of-age teenage novels - but the voice is so strong (the translating of French backslang into British urban slang was a nice touch, I thought) that it didn't matter. The character of Doria is utterly compelling - belligerant yet vulnerable; cynical yet heart-breakingly naive - I would have happily spent twice the length of the book again inside her head. (I hear there is a sequel & int ...more

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Sep 14, 2008 Zach rated it it was ok · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Jul 22, 2016 Hannah added it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2016, grownups-fiction

Great! Not technically published as YA, apparently, but I will be assigning it to my class for its hella resonance.

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Aug 25, 2020 Meryem rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I give this book 4 stars,even i want to give it 5 stars.
This book talks about a girl ,named Doria .she's fifteen years old,living with her mother _illetirate woman stuck in a dead end job _her father took off back to Morocco in order to marry a fertile woman ,because he wished for a long time a son not a daughter. Due the miserable life Doria is living she was bad at school where all her teachers were seeing her a bit depressed ;so she was obliged to follow sessions with a psychologist Mrs.Burl I give this book 4 stars,even i want to give it 5 stars.
This book talks about a girl ,named Doria .she's fifteen years old,living with her mother _illetirate woman stuck in a dead end job _her father took off back to Morocco in order to marry a fertile woman ,because he wished for a long time a son not a daughter. Due the miserable life Doria is living she was bad at school where all her teachers were seeing her a bit depressed ;so she was obliged to follow sessions with a psychologist Mrs.Burlaud,who smells of alcohol.
the plot was open ,it has no beginning no end . it was a speech of the main character which she judges,criticizes the events ,the people around her. The book tackles some serious matters the most profound one is the suffers of the girl when her parents wanted a boy ,because how much we are developed and we are aware,this belief seems to be living forever in the mind of our Arabic society,always seeing the boy stronger and valuable than the girl .
The life of Doria was a bit hard ,with the neighborhood and the school where she struggles to fit in ,the prejudices that she gets because of her way of wearing (they even smirk at her).
But the book was light funny and hilarious in some chapters (the first time she got her period and when she wanted to buy sanitary towels😂😂) even her life is horrible but she described in comic way . I love it .
there's other characters like Hamoudi and Nabil ,aunt Zohra too . especially Hamoudi that was present in the story and who was the real friend ,more, the brother of Doria .
Now I need to justify why I didn't give the book 5 stars:
_there were some phrases which i wasn't comfortable with :
"Back home,we called MEKTOUB ,it's like a film script and we are the actors. Trouble is ,our scriptwriter's got no talent .He's never heard of happily ever after"
"It was grey outside,the same colour as the concrete of the tower blocks and there was a fine drizzle,like God was spitting on us"
"Seems like the two of them are counting a lot o God "
_also I accept the idea of her being kissed by Nabil ,we know that he's a jerk but to let it happen again with large willing? no this I can't admit it .😤😤where's dignity honor ????
if this two details doesn't exist ,the book gonna be wonderful .its narrative way and the style of writing were wonderful. love it .
however ,I still recommend this book (not highly 😂😂) ...more

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topics	posts	views	last activity
Goodreads Librari...: Please combine Kiffe kiffe demain	3	141	Aug 17, 2016 07:16AM
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About Faïza Guène

Faïza Guène

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Faïza Guène is a French writer and director. Born to parents of Algerian origin, she grew up in Pantin, in the north-eastern suburbs of Paris. She attended Collège Jean Jaurès followed by Lycée Marcelin Berthelot in Pantin. She began studies in sociology at Université Paris VIII, in St-Denis, before abandoning them to pursue writing and directing full-time.

Her first novel, "Kiffe Kiffe Tomorrow" w ...more

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Quotes from Kiffe Kiffe Demain

“be blond. I know, they're shitty prejudices. There must be Russian brunettes out there with names that are super simple to pronounce, so simple you'd shout them out for no other reason than the fun of saying such an easy name. I guess there even could be some Russian girls who have never laced up a pair of skates in their life.” — 1 likes

“Sometimes I try to imagine how I'd be if I were Polish or Russian instead of Moroccan ... Maybe I'd do ice dancing, but not in those cheapskate local competitions where you win chocolate medals and T-shirts. No, real ice skating, like in the Olympics, with the most beautiful classical music, guys from all over the world who judge your performance like they do at school, and whole stadiums to cheer even if you go splat like a steak.” — 1 likes

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