SHERAZADE, AGED 17, DARK CURLY HAIR, GREEN EYES, MISSING Sherazade is
seventeen, Algerian, and a ¬runaway in Paris. Although she has no
morals, no scruples, no politics, no apparent emotional depth and little
education, Sherazade remains curiously unattached but innocent in the
city's underworld of drop-outs, outcasts, political activists and
junkies. With honesty and lyricism this novel exposes the various issues
that affect a young woman living in a city which is both sophisticated
and provincial, liberal and conservative, tolerant and prejudiced. In
Paris, Sherazade is pursued by Julian, the son of French-Algerians who
is an ardent Arabist. Pigeon-holed by Julian into the ¬traditional
exotic mold, Sherazade endeavors to create her own definition of
Algerian ¬femininity and in doing so breaks down conventions and
stereotypes. It is Julian's obsession with her that spurs her on to
self-discovery and to make decisions about her future. Sherazade is
about a young woman haunted by her Algerian past. It is a powerful
account of a person who searches for her true identity but is caught
between worlds--Africa and Europe, her parents' and her own, colony and
capital. Ultimately it is an ¬account of possession, identity and the
realities of urban life today and what can happen when society fails to
acknowledge its younger generations.
