Les Navigateurs de la Littérature : Kiffe kiffe demain, Faiza Guene

Fifteen-year-old Doria isn’t in a good place. Or to be precise: she’s in the sadly misnamed Paradise Estate on the outskirts of Paris. Her father has returned to Morocco to find a wife who can give him a boy, and her illiterate, non-francophone mother is forced to fend for herself with a cleaning job in a grim motel. What’s more, her favorite soap star has turned out to be gay and it looks like the only school that is going to accept Doria is the one for future hairdressers. Still, it could be worse: Doria could be like Samra, the girl in the flat above, whose father doesn’t let her out. Or like Youssef, who has been banged up for a year for dealing in drugs and stolen cars. At least Hamoudi – twenty-eight and the coolest guy on the estate – is her friend. And at least she gets a free weekly session with psychologist Mrs. Burland, who is about the only person who listens, even if she doesn’t quite understand…