Kiffe Kiffe Tomorrow

He thought I'd forged my mom's name on the slip. How stupid is that? On this thing Mom just made a kind of squiggly shape on the page. That jerk didn't even think about what he was saying, didn't even ask himself why her signature might be weird. He's one of those people who think illiteracy is like AIDS. It only exists in Africa. -from KIFFE KIFFE TOMORROW Doria is a fifteen-year-old Muslim French girl living in the infamous Paradise projects of suburban Paris and suffering all the usual problems: an overworked mother, an absent father, an inability to understand boys. She endures a parade of social workers with names like Madame Thingamajig and Monsieur Whosawhatsit. She is blindsided by her first kiss-stolen by a geeky boy with fat lips. Because she's surrounded by drugs, crime, and racism, you'd expect hers to be a tale of endless tragedy. But Doria isn't the complaining type. She'll make the best of her mektoub, or "destiny," reminding us that no matter our troubles, we all have parts to play in our fate. Take the Arab phrase kif-kif-"same-old, same-old"-and turn it into a French phrase, kiffe kiffe: Things are getting better all the time. Disarmingly funny and fresh, Kiffe Kiffe Tomorrow is a hopeful, wise, and intimate portrait of Arab immigrant life.

Faiza Guene is a freshman in college and has just completed her first short film. The child of Algerian immigrants, she grew up in the public housing projects of Pantin, outside Paris. This is her first book.