num_pages: 176
description: Edith can hardly believe it when she learns that Fadila her sixty-year-old housemaid is completely illiterate. How can a person living in Paris in the third millennium possibly survive without knowing how to read or write? How does she catch a bus or pay a bill or withdraw money from the bank? Why it's unacceptable! She thus decides to become Fadilas French teacher. But teaching something as complex as reading and writing to an adult is rather more challenging that she thought. Their lessons are short difficult and tiring. Yet during these lessons the oh-so-Parisian Edith and Fadila an immigrant from Morocco begin to understand one other as never before and from this understanding will blossom a surprising and delightful friendship. dith will enter into contact with a way of life utterly unfamiliar to her one that is unforgiving at times but joyful and dignified. Translated by Alison Anderson (The Elegance of the Hedgehog A Novel Bookstore The Most Beautiful Book in the World)
language: English
title: Bitter Almonds
publisher: Europa Editions