Faïza Guène was only 19 when Kiffe Kiffe Demain, her first novel, was published by Hachette in 2004. She had already made three short films, a medium-length feature and a documentary, while studying sociology at Paris VIII, at St. Dénis, where she grew up. Guène’s Algerian parents, from Oran, made their home initially in Bobigny, where she was born. She grew up in a norther suburb of Paris, Pantin, in Seine-Saint-Denis, on Courtillieres, a large public housing estate that gives its name to a French rap group.

Kiffe Kiffe Demain tells the story of Doria, a young woman growing up on a similar estate in Paris. Bright and observant, she is trapped by lack of opportunity due to institutional racism on the one hand and sexism in the Algerian community on the other. Doria’s bright yet cynical outlook is captured in the novel’s title: kif-kif demain is a common Algerian expression meaning ‘same shit tomorrow.’ ‘Kiffer,’ in banlieu-slang, means liking something, so Guène’s take on the expression is more hopeful. She tells her story in a sparky French layered with Algerian Arabic and slang that presents a distinct challenge to translators, but even so the book has been translated into twenty-two languages and sold 70, 000 copies worldwide.

Doria’s unsparing observation on the ‘phonies’ who surround her, from neighbourhood boys to hopelessly patronising social workers, is a Holden Caulfield of the banlieux. Doria’s sharpness disguises a humane rage at the unfairness of the world, particularly for her best friend Samra, kept a virtual prisoner by her traditional North African family. Her distinctive voice speaks for itself, but has come to be seen as the unheard voice of the disaffected and oppressed youth of the banlieux who rioted in against the French authorities in 2005 and 2006, and particularly for the Muslim North African women who speak out in Ni Putes Ni Soumises leader Fadela Amara’s collection Breaking the Silence. Guène breaks many silences – of femininity, of adolescence, of the banlieux, of the immigrant – in an inimitable and highly enjoyable way.