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The place to be last Thursday night was the celebrated Librairie Centrale, next to the Patriarch Café in Fernay-Voltaire. The occasion was a Café Littéraire reading by Saphia Azzedine of her first novel, Confidences à Allah, (Editions Léo Scheer).  At exactly 8 pm, several dozen cognoscenti of the latest in French literature crowded into the tiny book store, spent a few moments tasting a plentiful supply of olives and almonds, sipped a small glass of strong red wine, and then headed to the back room to listen to Ms. Azzedine explain her novel, which tells the frank story of Jbara, an adolescent shepherd girl in the Maghreb.  Jbara, is denigrated by her father, physically abused by men and eventually drifts into prostitution, but nevertheless succeeds in preserving a kind of spiritual purity and an astonishingly honest perspective on life.  She is intelligent and naïve, but  never sees herself as a victim.  Her saving grace is the intimate dialogue which she maintains with Allah. “Loving you allowed me to love myself, and that allowed me to love,” Jbara explains.

Describing Jbara’s dialogue with Allah, Ms. Azzedine notes that  in Islam there is no intermediary between the individual and God. It is a direct conversation.  Mullahs and ayatollahs, may teach and enlighten the individual, but it is the personal dialogue between each person and Allah which ultimately matters.

Ms. Azzedine’s novel  is simultaneously extremely funny and serious. The writing is frank and honest to the point of crudeness.  “Poverty stinks,” Ms. Azzedine’s heroine declares  bluntly. At one point she trades her body for a bowl of yoghurt.  She at first likes the idea of wearing a veil, but then decides that it is too cumbersome.  She coolly observes the injustice of a social system that accepts the notion that men are unable to control themselves when they are confronted with women. If seeing a woman’s ankle excites a man, she reasons,  the solution is a cold shower.

“Muslims long to tell it all,” says Ms. Azzedine. “I am not sure why they do not do it.”

Confidences à Allah has not been translated into Arabic yet, but there are plans to turn it into a film next year. It has already been presented as a theatrical play which turned into a hit at last year’s Festival d’Avignon. It will soon move to Paris.  The producer picked the book up for a friend and started reading it in a taxi on his way to a party.  He found that he was still reading it during the party and called Ms. Azzedine’s publisher the next day.  Ms. Azzedine will direct her own film.

The Café Littéraire at the Librairie Centrale  has been a regular feature for the last decade.  The next one is scheduled for October 23 or October 30, depending on the author’s preference.  It’s worth a trip to the Librairie Centrale, if only to buy a copy of Ms. Azzedine’s refreshing book.

Librairie Centrale
Saphia Azzedine online video interview at Editions Leo Scheer
Reading seelections from her book