Some Dream for Fools

When Ahleme's mother was killed in a village massacre, she left Algeria for France with her father and brother and never returned. Now, more than a decade later, she is practically French, yet in many ways she remains an outsider. Her dreams for a better life have been displaced by the harsh realities she faces every day. Her father is unable to work after an accident at his construction site. Her brother boils over with adolescent energy and teeters dangerously close to choosing a life of crime. And as a temporary resident, Ahleme could at any moment be sent back to a village and a life that are now more foreign than Paris. In Some Dream for Fools, Faiza Guene explores the disparity between the expectations and limitations of immigrant life in the West and tells a remarkable story of one woman's courage to dream.