The writers Nathalie Hadj and Mina Fadli present next Wednesday, July 10 at 7 p.m. in the Media Library of the Instituto Francés of Madrid the book L’impossible retour, a moving story of uprooting, beautiful encounters and wounds inherited from our ancestors. Event in French with free entry with reservation at this link.
Exploring her family’s past, Nathalie Hadj searches for her own history, her double culture, and emotionally weaves a story about origins. L’impossible retour is his first novel. The writers Nathalie Hadj and Mina Fadli will address the question of the search for identity and the legacy of family memories from the Maghreb.
The book tells how in 1956, Karim, a teenager, left Algeria and moved to France, where he changed his given name. Ana flees Málaga and Franco’s Spain in 1962 to work as a cleaner in Paris. When they meet, each recognizes the other as the exile that he is: they get married and start a family. Ana becomes a janitor, while Karim, now Paul, works in a clothing factory before becoming a bank employee. They have two children, the narrator and her brother.
When her father disappears, the narrator realizes that, apart from the outlines, she knows almost nothing about her parents’ history. Turning to her childhood memories and interviewing witnesses from the time who still accompany her, she sets out to explore her memory and the streets of the 11th arrondissement of Paris, where she lived, to discover her truth, and perhaps her secrets…
