Le Porteur de Cartable

Paris, March 1962. As the war between France and Algeria comes to an end, Omar, age 10, responsible for the collection of funds for the militant FLN network "Turbigo", makes his rounds in the picturesque immigrant quarter of the Halles in Paris. He knows who the good guys and the bad guys are until one day "the enemy" arrives from Algeria: Rafael, also age 10, washes up on the shores of Paris, another castaway of history. He not only moves into Omar's building but now lives on the same floor. To Omar, this means he must fight his own war: on the school playground, in the street, even in the building. But the child's world is not that of adults and everything that was supposed to separate the two boys ultimately unites them in friendship, like two sides of the same coin. Born in Paris, Akli Tadjer is also a screenwriter. This is his third novel.