Solitaire

(translated from the French by Gareth Stanton and Nick Hindley, with an introduction by Gareth Stanton, pp.vii-xvi)

Solitaire is a subjective attempt to come to terms with the life of North African migrant workers in France. The central character is a twenty-six-year-old immigrant worker from whose dreams and isolation emerges the vision of a woman. She becomes entangled in his thoughts and stirs up memories. The room - 'a trunk' - in which he lives closes up over his past and his internal universe. To break out of this imprisonent, melancholy and isolation, he destroys the image and emerges into reality. Once out in the street, he encounters violence, hate and racism. He meets Gazelle and through her he hopes to escape the solitary confinement to which emigration and exile have condemmed him.