Dreams From The Endz by Faiza Guene

This is a book about a 24 year old girl in the big city. However, the girl, Ahleme, is an Algerian immigrant living in Paris, and this makes a big difference. She still has problems like falling in love with the wrong guy or falling out with friends – but there’s a political backdrop to this too, because Ahleme and her friends have to struggle to stay in a country where the law is biased against them. The book is very well written, and well translated, although the attempt to translate Parisian slang by substituting British slang is a little forced. Nonetheless, Ahleme is a very appealing protagonist, whether she’s helping her disabled father or getting her delinquent brother out of trouble. And, importantly, she’s one of the only young Muslim women in fiction that I’ve ever found authentic. This is fresh, fascinating, literature – and look out for the extremely appropriate last sentence. [Keir Hind]