Nos richesses

the long version

In 1935, Edmond Charlot was twenty years old and he returned to Algiers with a single idea in mind, to take example on Adrienne Monnier and his Parisian bookstore. As Charlot knows, his vocation is to give birth, to choose young writers from the Mediterranean, without distinction of language or religion. Placed under the aegis of Giono, its tiny bookstore is named Les Vraies Richesses. And to inaugurate his catalog, it publishes the first text of an unknown: Albert Camus. Charlot exults, ignoring that to devote his life to books is also to sacrifice it to the vagaries of misfortune. And to those of History. For revolt is rumbling in Algeria on the eve of World War II. In 2017, Ryad is the same age as Charlot in his early days. But he only feels indifference to literature. Studying in Paris, he is visiting Algiers with the task of repainting a dusty bookstore, where books soon give way to donuts. However, emptying these places is strangely complicated by the surveillance of the old Abdallah, the guardian of the temple.--Translation of page 4 of cover by Éditions du Seuil.