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Maïssa Bey. Puisque mon coeur est mort. La Tour d'Aigues, France. L'Aube. 2010. 254 pages. euro18. ISBN 978-2-8159-0000-3
Aïda, a divorced, middle-aged Algerian mother and English literature professor, is writing increasingly desperate messages to her recently assassinated only son. Part revenge tragedy, part mournful introspection, Maïssa Bey's harrowing and superbly written novel bears witness to the tens of thousands of victims of Islamic fundamentalism in this longsuffering North African country. Beginning with Aïda's new status as a bereaved mother and ending with the moment when she confronts her son's killer, Puisque mon coeur est mort (Since my heart is dead) provides in the course of fifty short chapters the portrait of an ordinary, if somewhat unconventional, woman who struggles against both her grief and the rigid social norms of her community.
Due to a law of amnesty designed to put...