Métro : Instantanés

by Leïla Sebbar

Le métro. Paris. Une Babel souterraine au-delà des mers, où se croisent les visages et les corps, les accents et les langues. Des instantanés, notés à la vitesse du métro, ironiques et tendres. Saynètes, dialogues, portraits. Des histoires furtives, éphémères, qui racontent deux minutes trente-cinq de bonheur ou de malheur.

139 pages, Paperback

Published January 4, 2007

About the author

Leïla Sebbar is an Algerian author, the daughter of a French mother and an Algerian father. She spent her youth in colonial Algeria but now lives in Paris and writes in French. She writes about the relationship between France and Algeria and often juxtaposes the imagery of both countries to show the difference in cultures between the two.

Sebbar deals with a variety of topics, and either adopts a purely fictional approach or uses psychology to make her point. Many of Sebbar's novels express the frustrations of the Beur, the second generation of Maghribi youth who were born and raised in France and who have not yet integrated into French society. Her book Parle mon fils, parle à ta mère (1984; Talk son, talk to your mother), illustrates the absence of dialogue between two generations who do not speak the same language.