Momo has been one of the ever-changing ragbag of whores' children at Madame Rosa's boardinghouse in Paris ever since he can remember. But when the check that pays for his keep no longer arrives and as Madame Rosa becomes too ill to climb the stairs to their apartment, he determines to support her any way he can.
This sensitive, slightly macabre love story between Momo and Madame Rosa has a supporting cast of transvestites, pimps, and witch doctors from Paris's immigrant slum, Belleville. Profoundly moving, The Life Before Us earned France's premier literary prize, the Prix Goncourt.
- ISBN10 081120961X
- ISBN13 9780811209618
- Publish Date 14 May 1986
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 18 July 2014
- Publish Country US
- Imprint New Directions Publishing Corporation
- Format Paperback
- Pages 192
- Language English