The latest addition to my website is Sami Tchak‘s Place des Fêtes. The title refers to a stop on the Paris metro where a key scene in the novel takes place. Our unnamed narrator was born in France to parents from over there, i.e Togo, though it is never named. He argues with his father who has not had fthe success he hoped for and now only wants to die back in his home village. The narrator maintains that the reason why their life is shit (all fifty plus chapter headings start with Shit, e.g. shit life, is not just because of French racism but because what African immigrants do with their lives and where they live. He himself is an example. He has sex with his sister (his two sisters later become whores in the Netherlands) and his cousin and generally behaves irresponsibly, though does take up reading and, assuming this is (semi-)autobiographical, becomes a writer. It is a very negative book but interesting to see the life of African immigrants in France and how they themselves see ther life there.