Waiting at the Paris airport, two immigrants from Djibouti reveal parallel stories of war, child soldiers, arms trafficking, drugs, and hunger. Bashir is recently discharged from the army and wounded, finding himself inside the French Embassy. Harbi, whose wife, Alice, has been killed by the police, is there too—arrested earlier as a political suspect. An embassy official mistakes Bashir for Harbi's son, and as Harbi does not deny it, both will be exiled to France, Alice's home country. This brilliantly shrewd and cynical universal chronicle of war and exile, translated into English for the first time, amounts to a lyrical and reflective history of Djibouti and its tortuous politics, crippled economy, and devastated moral landscape.
- ISBN10 0253006937
- ISBN13 9780253006936
- Publish Date 20 August 2012 (first published 2 June 2004)
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 29 March 2021
- Publish Country US
- Imprint Indiana University Press
- Format eBook (EPUB)
- Pages 160
- Language English