La vérité attendra l'aurore by Akli Tadjer (review)

Mohamed, the narrator and owner of an apartment in Gentilly, awaits a real estate agent and an interested buyer. Quickly, the reader is drawn into Mohamed's memory as he explores the family's dwelling and looks through some old photos. One, in particular, causes him to pause: the family is gathered, enjoying a return to the parents' homeland of Algeria in 1993 for a time of rest and relaxation that also corresponds with the twentieth birthday of Mohamed's brother, Lyes. A group of interested buyers which includes a seemingly familiar woman—his boyhood girlfriend, Nelly—gathers, and Mohamed goes into a movie house where memories again flood his mind and plunge us into his childhood. He cannot sleep that evening, and he decides to reopen his Facebook account to see if he can locate Nelly, but all he finds is a request from an unknown Houria who wants to be his Facebook friend. Mohamed does finally connect with Nelly through Facebook. We find out that Mohamed and his brother were abducted by an Islamic extremist group while the family was in Algeria in 1993 when the photograph in the opening scene was taken. After being helped to escape by Safia—the young woman who brought their meals while they were being held—Lyes fell and hurt himself. Thus, only Mohamed could escape to get help, but the police could not find Lyes or the extremist group when they returned. The family assumes that Lyes was killed. One evening, as Nelly and Mohamed's relationship deepens, Mohamed takes a look at his newly reopened Facebook account and sees a message from the mysterious Houria. She asks if they could talk about some family problems and then poses a second, shocking question: "Who is Nelly?" She attaches a picture of the cover of Lyes's favorite book, The Client. Houria reveals that she is Lyes's daughter by Safia and that Lyes is alive and a member of the Salafist movement. Mohamed goes to Alger to find Lyes. He meets up with Houria and Safia, who tell him some more of Lyes's story before he goes to confront his brother. Lyes has completely converted to his religion and wants nothing to do with what he considers to be Mohamed's abominable lifestyle. The brothers, who no longer have anything in common, take leave of one another, knowing that they will never see each other again. The novel ends with Mohamed's returning to Paris but promising to come back to Algeria to see his newly discovered niece. Beautifully written and engaging, Tadjer's novel causes us to pause and consider what it means to be a family. As Lyes embraces those who share his views on religious fanaticism, Mohamed understands that he needs to move forward. Of course, closely related to the topic of family connections is the question of where a second generation immigrant fits—in his parents' homeland or his own. Tadjer does a masterful job of weaving these topics into the background throughout the work.