Tariq
Tariq lives in a tenement, one that has no lighting or water. Tariq performs poorly at school, he’s long been labeled: he’s the disturbing element, the hopeless one. Jasmine also lives in that tenement, but she’s different from all the other girls: Jasmine studies, she believes in herself, under her headscarf there’s a brilliant brain, while patience and determination are in her gaze. Chances are not the same for everyone, but sometimes life surprises us with sudden swerves, and beauty knows how to reveal itself, even in the harshest context.
An intense, heart-rending novel, two young people ravenous for hope and a future, a sincere, moving reading, harsh in some parts, but with a hopeful ending and a non-sugar-coated story on the struggles of integration and the courage of teenagers who live on the margins.
“So good is Alice Keller’s writing, that it grabs you in the gut and wrinkles it like fabric. When she writes for teenagers, she seems to be able to pick up on their thoughts, even those that are submerged or barely visible, and render them in a language that is true to them. Thus, in a handful of pages, the reader finds themselves catapulted into a dimension that seems to talk directly to them.” (Area)
By the same author or illustrator
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Cece & Cice In the Meadow
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Cece & Cice On the Snow
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