What do you think?
Rate this book
Sirocco: A French Girl Comes of Age in War-Torn Algeria
On All Saints Day, 1954, the Algerian War of Independence from France begins, forever changing the lives of ten-year-old Nanna, her family, and a million-and-a-half French settlers.
As Arab rebels carry out terrorist acts against civilians, hatred and bloodshed permeate the fabric of European and Muslim lives. A safe bus ride to town means keeping an eye out for stray shopping baskets containing hidden bombs. A day trip to the beach requires the protection of a military convoy.
But life goes on, and Nanna’s loving mother, mischievous but good-natured siblings, and kind grandfathers provide plenty of adventure and humor. Nanna worships her Papa, who provides for his family and keeps them safe, but, growing up, she begins to understand that he is also a braggart with unyielding views of right and wrong, who believes that attending a supervised party with boys will compromise a girl’s virtue. Nanna defies him and falls in love, thus setting the stage for an ongoing clash of wills.
As Nanna watches her beloved country torn apart by terrorism, she grieves for the French targeted by the fellagha and for the Arabs they slaughter because they are seen as pro-French. Ultimately, Nanna watches in anguish as the French generals, betrayed by De Gaulle, make a last stand for a French Algeria before laying down their arms.
In the end Nanna’s family, like all the other French settlers, must choose between the suitcase and the grave.
As Arab rebels carry out terrorist acts against civilians, hatred and bloodshed permeate the fabric of European and Muslim lives. A safe bus ride to town means keeping an eye out for stray shopping baskets containing hidden bombs. A day trip to the beach requires the protection of a military convoy.
But life goes on, and Nanna’s loving mother, mischievous but good-natured siblings, and kind grandfathers provide plenty of adventure and humor. Nanna worships her Papa, who provides for his family and keeps them safe, but, growing up, she begins to understand that he is also a braggart with unyielding views of right and wrong, who believes that attending a supervised party with boys will compromise a girl’s virtue. Nanna defies him and falls in love, thus setting the stage for an ongoing clash of wills.
As Nanna watches her beloved country torn apart by terrorism, she grieves for the French targeted by the fellagha and for the Arabs they slaughter because they are seen as pro-French. Ultimately, Nanna watches in anguish as the French generals, betrayed by De Gaulle, make a last stand for a French Algeria before laying down their arms.
In the end Nanna’s family, like all the other French settlers, must choose between the suitcase and the grave.
274 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 3, 2014
3 people are currently reading
20 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
December 1, 2014
Writing a book in any language is an accomplishment. Writing a book in a language other than your native tongue is an awesome accomplishment, especially if it’s written as beautifully as Danielle Dahl’s Sirocco. Though a memoir of Ms. Dahl’s coming of age in war-torn Algeria, the book reads as if it was fiction, with characters so well-drawn, you feel by the end of the book that you know them all. I especially loved Ms. Dahl’s father, whose occasional profanity is laced with love and wisdom. Though this is a family full of love and respect, it is Ms. Dahl’s father who commands center stage. What a great character.
One striking element is how clearly the politics of the time parallels present day turmoil in the region. I feel like Ms. Dahl’s father, had he been consulted, would have given sage advice about the history and culture of the region that could have avoided the mess we have today.
Though another review here speaks of the father's insensitivity, and I agree to an extent, I always saw the love behind the words. I think all the children begged for his approval, but maybe that made them reach higher standards than they would have set for themselves.
A riveting book worthy of five stars.
One striking element is how clearly the politics of the time parallels present day turmoil in the region. I feel like Ms. Dahl’s father, had he been consulted, would have given sage advice about the history and culture of the region that could have avoided the mess we have today.
Though another review here speaks of the father's insensitivity, and I agree to an extent, I always saw the love behind the words. I think all the children begged for his approval, but maybe that made them reach higher standards than they would have set for themselves.
A riveting book worthy of five stars.
February 26, 2014
This memoir is the story of a fourth generation French settler coming of age in Algeria in the midst of the Algerian war of independence. While the war time terrorism serves as a back drop, the real story is that of Danielle growing up with a strict, sometimes cruel father, submissive mother and four younger sisters and brothers. It is sometimes difficult to read how much Danielle craves her father's approval when he is painted as such a mean, seemingly insensitive person. It is also hard to read how Danielle and her family are subjected to the random acts of terrorism throughout the Algerian struggle for independence. I can imagine what so many other young people are dealing with around the world today in war-torn countries. There is so much sadness in this book. Yet, in the end, when her family emigrates to France, it is obvious how hard it is for Danielle to leave the only home she's ever known - her paradise.
January 21, 2015
Memoir of the author's youth during the Algerian War for Independence (1954-1962). skillfully crafted and I learned a lot about a part of history that I knew nothing about.
May 3, 2022
I met this author at a local book club discussion. What an interesting lady! Can't wait for her sequel!
January 26, 2015
The author adeptly takes the reader into war-torn Algeria where a family is seen struggling to survive the horrors of fellagha's attacks. The small children having to duck while the father is driving as the family is being attacked.
I was shocked how Nanna's school friend, Saalima who played 'piggy back' with her just a few days before, was taken out of school to marry a sixty-five year old man. Nanna's cultured father told her when she queried that such conduct was part of the Arab culture.
I found the father and family adorable. Danielle Dahl had written her memoirs in such a fascinating way that it transcends a reader's expectations.
It's an exceptional book which leaves the reader desiring to know more about the area and its people.
It's a very well-written and well-edited book.
My final remark is that I found how similar the turmoil caused by terrorists has not changed.
A must-read!
I was shocked how Nanna's school friend, Saalima who played 'piggy back' with her just a few days before, was taken out of school to marry a sixty-five year old man. Nanna's cultured father told her when she queried that such conduct was part of the Arab culture.
I found the father and family adorable. Danielle Dahl had written her memoirs in such a fascinating way that it transcends a reader's expectations.
It's an exceptional book which leaves the reader desiring to know more about the area and its people.
It's a very well-written and well-edited book.
My final remark is that I found how similar the turmoil caused by terrorists has not changed.
A must-read!
June 8, 2018
For those interested, a glimpse at what my people went through. Also in French which is, of course, the version I read. I can feel the heat of the desert. Taste the food. Hear the sounds. Then the betrayal and the loss. But mostly I can hear the accent of my family in her writing.
March 7, 2016
In the nineteenth chapter of Sirocco, titled "My Story," Danielle A. Dahl writes:
"By age twelve, I desperately wished composition were more important than calculus. If so, I’d really shine. I enjoyed writing short paragraphs on topics the teacher assigned in class and often wondered how authors came to spin whole stories. How they managed to whisk me away to unknown places, introduce me to extraordinary characters, and coax me into becoming one of them. By what sleight of words did they move me to laugh, cry, hope, and despair?"
Thus our narrator, Nanna, and author, Danielle A. Dahl, tells us a great deal of what we need to know about her. She is a writer, which means she watches, she listens, she records, she tells the stories that give frame and meaning to the fragments of our lives.
In this mesmerizing, disturbing, moving, and alarmingly honest memoir, Dahl lays out those fragments of a life, a family's life, and a nation's life, in the kind of pattern that only the best writers can design--a pattern that pulls us in, shakes us up, and leaves us with a greater understanding of the many ways in which each of our individual lives is woven into the larger life of the world. The great events of Algeria's War for Independence and the daily events of a father's battles with his family remind us, once again, that God is in the details.
Thank you, Danielle Dahl.
Merged review:
Danielle Dahl's memoir-disturbing, upsetting, moving and, ultimately, comforting-juxtaposes the ordinary life of a family living in Algeria with the details of that nation's war for independence from France. French themselves, the author and her family find they must ultimately flee the place they call home.
The book weaves together the strands of the ordinary life of a family and the extraordinary circumstances in which they find themselves. Violence and political zeal sweep the country while the conflicts in this ordinary family move slowly along, day-by-day, seemingly overshadowed in importance by the world-changing events of a nation fighting for its survival.
In the nineteenth chapter of Sirocco, Dahl explains herself as a writer, a woman in love with words and with details from the age of twelve. Her bona fides are in this book-a beautifully crafted, meticulously composed account of a family and the place it inhabits that makes very clear the ultimate truth: it is those ordinary daily details, the life of the individual, that matter. Against those, the movement of nations pales.
This is a wonderful book. By all means, buy and read!!
"By age twelve, I desperately wished composition were more important than calculus. If so, I’d really shine. I enjoyed writing short paragraphs on topics the teacher assigned in class and often wondered how authors came to spin whole stories. How they managed to whisk me away to unknown places, introduce me to extraordinary characters, and coax me into becoming one of them. By what sleight of words did they move me to laugh, cry, hope, and despair?"
Thus our narrator, Nanna, and author, Danielle A. Dahl, tells us a great deal of what we need to know about her. She is a writer, which means she watches, she listens, she records, she tells the stories that give frame and meaning to the fragments of our lives.
In this mesmerizing, disturbing, moving, and alarmingly honest memoir, Dahl lays out those fragments of a life, a family's life, and a nation's life, in the kind of pattern that only the best writers can design--a pattern that pulls us in, shakes us up, and leaves us with a greater understanding of the many ways in which each of our individual lives is woven into the larger life of the world. The great events of Algeria's War for Independence and the daily events of a father's battles with his family remind us, once again, that God is in the details.
Thank you, Danielle Dahl.
Merged review:
Danielle Dahl's memoir-disturbing, upsetting, moving and, ultimately, comforting-juxtaposes the ordinary life of a family living in Algeria with the details of that nation's war for independence from France. French themselves, the author and her family find they must ultimately flee the place they call home.
The book weaves together the strands of the ordinary life of a family and the extraordinary circumstances in which they find themselves. Violence and political zeal sweep the country while the conflicts in this ordinary family move slowly along, day-by-day, seemingly overshadowed in importance by the world-changing events of a nation fighting for its survival.
In the nineteenth chapter of Sirocco, Dahl explains herself as a writer, a woman in love with words and with details from the age of twelve. Her bona fides are in this book-a beautifully crafted, meticulously composed account of a family and the place it inhabits that makes very clear the ultimate truth: it is those ordinary daily details, the life of the individual, that matter. Against those, the movement of nations pales.
This is a wonderful book. By all means, buy and read!!
May 2, 2016
Sirocco is a wind that originates in the Sahara, moves northward at cyclonic speed and deposits an abrasive sand dust in the Mediterranean coastal areas of North Africa and Southern Europe. Its location, direction of movement and violent nature correlates to the first eighteen years of Danielle Dahl's life in Algeria, North Africa.
In the early 1800's France conquered Algeria and established it as a French colony. Hundred of thousands of Europeans (mostly French) immigrated to Algeria during the 1800's and into the early 1900's. The authors ancestors were one of many who became French nationalists living in Algeria. About halfway through the 20th century, the Muslim population began to rise up against the French rule, wanting a larger governing role and eventually seeking independence. These revolutionary times coincided with the author's eighteen years in Algeria as told in this memoir.
I liked this memoir mostly because it introduced me to a time and place of which I had little knowledge. I was not expecting to read about the ongoing issue of the Arab terrorists' attacks on the civilian French population. As the Sirocco's dust moved north and deposited on European soil, so did the French families when Algeria gained independence in the early 1960's.
The majority of this memoir was about the author's personal family life including the challenge of rectifying any and all issues that arose with her father, and there were many. This memoir was not enough to satisfy my curiosity about the integration of the two cultures, or lack thereof. Was there a deep divide between the two cultures? Did the two groups depend on each other in their daily lives? Did the school-age populations ever interact with each other in activities such as sports? There are just too many missing parts in this memoir.
In the early 1800's France conquered Algeria and established it as a French colony. Hundred of thousands of Europeans (mostly French) immigrated to Algeria during the 1800's and into the early 1900's. The authors ancestors were one of many who became French nationalists living in Algeria. About halfway through the 20th century, the Muslim population began to rise up against the French rule, wanting a larger governing role and eventually seeking independence. These revolutionary times coincided with the author's eighteen years in Algeria as told in this memoir.
I liked this memoir mostly because it introduced me to a time and place of which I had little knowledge. I was not expecting to read about the ongoing issue of the Arab terrorists' attacks on the civilian French population. As the Sirocco's dust moved north and deposited on European soil, so did the French families when Algeria gained independence in the early 1960's.
The majority of this memoir was about the author's personal family life including the challenge of rectifying any and all issues that arose with her father, and there were many. This memoir was not enough to satisfy my curiosity about the integration of the two cultures, or lack thereof. Was there a deep divide between the two cultures? Did the two groups depend on each other in their daily lives? Did the school-age populations ever interact with each other in activities such as sports? There are just too many missing parts in this memoir.
April 6, 2016
Delightful and Foreboding
Naturally, the title intrigued me. Danielle A. Dahl’s Sirocco starts out with the day-to-day recollections of an adolescent girl growing up in Algeria during the early 1960s. Her French parents and four siblings are happy with their lives. While having to be frugal, they are respected members of the community comprised of other Pieds Noirs (all French expressions are made beautifully clear throughout the book), as well as their Arab neighbors, friends and colleagues.
When Algeria’s desire to self-rule rears its head, it all changes. The family is given a choice: To leave their home with a suitcase; or to stay in a coffin. Such is the heartbreak behind any revolution; the price to pay by those who had made a foreign country their home.Ms. Dahl’s writing comes straight from the heart, yet without sentimentality or rancor; in short, it is delightful, insightful, humorous and sad all at the same time - a wondrous window into a world most of us know little about. I highly recommend this beautifully written memoir.
Inge H. Borg, Author of Sirocco, Storm over Land and Sea
Naturally, the title intrigued me. Danielle A. Dahl’s Sirocco starts out with the day-to-day recollections of an adolescent girl growing up in Algeria during the early 1960s. Her French parents and four siblings are happy with their lives. While having to be frugal, they are respected members of the community comprised of other Pieds Noirs (all French expressions are made beautifully clear throughout the book), as well as their Arab neighbors, friends and colleagues.
When Algeria’s desire to self-rule rears its head, it all changes. The family is given a choice: To leave their home with a suitcase; or to stay in a coffin. Such is the heartbreak behind any revolution; the price to pay by those who had made a foreign country their home.Ms. Dahl’s writing comes straight from the heart, yet without sentimentality or rancor; in short, it is delightful, insightful, humorous and sad all at the same time - a wondrous window into a world most of us know little about. I highly recommend this beautifully written memoir.
Inge H. Borg, Author of Sirocco, Storm over Land and Sea
November 30, 2015
Algeria in the '50s and '60s was not a safe place, but it was the place Ms. Dahl grew up with experiences that matured into deep understanding of the ways love, hope, fear, and desperation combine to produce betrayal and loyalty, cruelty and compassion, all the extremes of human behavior one finds in a location inhabited by diverse cultures, cultures that fail to discover and value the things they have in common. And the story is told from inside a large family by a girl gradually maturing into a young woman. And the story is told in clear, picturesque prose by a fine writer intent on helping us discover what we have in common with her experience. And it is a lot, we find, as the sirocco strips away social facades and carries us a journey alternating between domestic familial hijenks and violent social upheaval.
July 19, 2015
I thoroughly enjoyed Danielle Dahl's memoir concerning her youth in war-torn Algeria. I have been interested in learning about Algeria during this time period, and Dahl's experiences were both enlightening, while at the same time very touching. I felt for her and her family being forced out of their home and starting a new life in France. I highly recommend this book. I have to say that Ms. Dahl is a talented writer, and I enjoyed reading her book!
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews