Para Naïma, una joven francesa que trabaja en una galería de arte parisina, Argelia, el país del que proceden su padre y sus abuelos, ha sido durante mucho tiempo solamente un punto difuso en el mapa sin demasiado interés. Sin embargo, en una sociedad agitada por el debate sobre la inmigración y el racismo a causa de los atentados de París, todo parece querer devolverla a la tierra de sus ancestros. Pero ¿qué relación puede tener Naïma con una historia que nunca le han contado? Su abuelo Ali, un cabileño de las montañas cercanas a la antigua Palestro, murió antes de que pudiera preguntarle por qué abandonó su aldea y se convirtió en un expatriado; Yema, su abuela, quizá pudiera responderle, pero no en una lengua comprensible para Naïma. En cuanto a Hamid, su padre, un chiquillo brillante llegado el verano de 1962 a uno de los campos de refugiados construidos a toda prisa en Francia, ha decidido no hablar de la Argelia de su niñez. Un drástico silencio familiar que para Naïma, francesa de suelo pero de ascendencia argelina, no deja de ser en buena medida una manera de dominar el arte de perder.

DESCRIPTION IN ENGLISH

A gripping, multigenerational tale of a French Algerian woman, her family's past, and the legacies of colonialism

Naïma's family comes from Algeria, but she knows it only from what she experiences in her grandparents' tiny apartment in Normandy: the food her grandmother cooks, the precious things they carried when they fled. Naïma's father claims to remember nothing, has made himself French. But now, one of them is going back; Naïma will see for herself what was left behind―including the family secrets.

How do we protect our families and choose the right side of war, revolution? What price will our descendants pay for the choices we make? Will they judge us fairly? During the War for Algerian Independence, Naïma's grandfather went from being the wealthy owner of a olive grove to an immigrant scratching out a living in France. Her search reveals how the battle against colonial rule reshaped communities, created deep rifts within families, and let the whims of whoever might be in power instantly overturn the lives of ordinary people.

Alice Zeniter's The Art of Losing is a powerful, moving family novel that spans three generations, across seventy years and two shores of the Mediterranean Sea. It is a resonant, accessible history of Algeria and the diaspora through the people who lived it. It is also the story of how we carry on in the face of loss: loss of a country, identity, language, connection. And it is, ultimately, an immersive, unforgettable excavation of the personal legacies of colonialism, immigration, and war.