The Congolese writer JJ Bola publishes a very beautiful novel on the difficulties of exile. ” Nowhere to lay your head is available from Mercure de France, in the “Foreign Library” collection.
This is the story of Jean and his family. When he was born, Jean had big hands. So Dad said, ” Maybe he will be a goalkeeper later “. To which Grandma replied: Or maybe he just knows how to hang on. He will need it “.
Granny who was right: he really needed to hold on, Jean. Because if Jean is the darling son of Papa and Grandma, he is also a child of refugees. Congolese refugees settled in London, and faced with the daily challenge: the difficulty of integrating into a country that is not their own.
The promiscuity of an apartment in which one lodges – solidarity obliges – other compatriots in precarious situations. The need to succeed in school so that his parents are proud of him, without succumbing to pernicious temptations.
With a threat overhead, that of expulsion, and a destiny that lies in the hands, as Papa says, of ” people we don’t know and who don’t know us “.
” Nowhere to lay your head “, the novel by JJ Bola was published by Mercure de France in the “Foreign Library” collection.
Rebroadcast at 11:10 p.m. GMT on RFI of the VMDN show of Tuesday September 14, 2021 with the writer Philippe Djian.