176
2
200 * 268
15/03/2024
12+
The first-hand experience, told with biting humor, of two tyrannies—one political, the other parental—in Algeria between 1970 and 2000. Salim Zerrouki grew up in Algiers, in an unusual building within the complex built for the 1975 Mediterranean Games. At the time, Algeria was to all intents and purposes a dictatorship, and the Games were seen as an opportunity to display the country’s achievements to the rest of the world. The ultimate in modernity, the complex was designed by the internationally renowned Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer, who made it a personal rather than national statement.
In the story of his upbringing, which he tells with honesty, humility, and humor, the building in which Salim was born becomes a character in its own right, and his memories of childhood and adolescence combine to paint a personal, political, and spiritual portrait of a little-known and terrifying chapter in Algeria’s history.
A tough but touching and always amusing tale. A rare glimpse into a forgotten world.
