Just Like Tomorrow

Faïza Guène, translated by Sarah Adams

Chatto & Windus

Otago Daily Times, June 3rd 2006

Faïza Guène’s Just Like Tomorrow is short, idiosyncratic and firmly rooted in a specific time, place and culture. It is a brief, diaristic snapshot of a young Muslim girl struggling with adolescence, racism and class discrimination in a poor quarter of Paris.

Largely, I suspect, autobiographical, the episodic nature of the writing means the story sometimes lacks continuity, and resolution seems jarringly abrupt. Despite this, it provides a striking insight into a culture and situation that is unfamiliar, but increasingly important in a world where social exclusion and poverty are a reality too often denied.

This English translation of contemporary French writing is delightful reading: a satisfying experiences that appealed to me both as an avid reader and aspiring writer.