Atika Taoualit

Benjamin is at war: with life, with adults, with himself. From his earliest childhood onwards, the 13-year old has been shunted from one care home to another. When his mother has to go to prison, he is sent to his father, whom he has never known. The man turns out to be a dead loss, a warehouseman who's given up on life, a man in his mid-40s who still lives with his Moroccan parents in a high-rise block in the banlieue. Benjamin's turbulence and violence soon prove too much for his new family.

Farid, a young 26-year-old Frenchman, must travel to Algeria to save his father's house. While discovering this country in which he had never before set foot, he succumbs to the charms of a host of astonishing characters whose humour and simplicity affect him deeply. Amongst these is his cousin, a bright and lively young man who has the dream of one day going to France...