The Elementary Particles
by Michel Houellebecq | 
Nohow On
by Samuel Beckett | 
The Notebook
by Agota Kristof | 
So Long a Letter
by Mariama Ba | 
The Flight of Icarus
by Raymond Queneau | 
Joy of Man's Desiring
by Jean Giono | 
The Heart
by Maylis de Kerangal | 
The Great Fire of London
by Jacques Roubaud | 
Once Upon the River Love
by Andrei Makine | 
The Waitress Was New
by Dominique Fabre | 
Honeymoon
by Patrick Modiano | 
Farewell Waltz
by Milan Kundera | 
Harvest
by Jean Giono | 
W
by Georges Perec | 
The Song of the World
by Jean Giono | 
W, or the Memory of Childhood
by Georges Perec | 
The File on H
by Ismail Kadare | 
The Rover
by Joseph Conrad | 
The Last Life
by Claire Messud | 
Lucien Leuwen
by Stendhal |
School Days (Chemin-d'Ecole) is a captivating narrative based on Patrick Chamoiseau's childhood in Fort-de-France, Martinique. It is a revelatory account of the colonial world that shaped one of the liveliest and most creative voices in French and Caribbean literature today. Through the eyes of the boy Chamoiseau, we meet his severe, Francophile teacher, a man intent upon banishing all remnants of Creole from his students' speech. This domineering man is succeeded by an equally autocratic teacher, an Africanist and proponent of "Negritude." Along the way we are also introduced to Big Bellybutton, the class scapegoat, whose tales of Creole heroes and heroines, magic, zombies, and fantastic animals provide a fertile contrast to the imported French fairy tales told in school. In prose punctuated by Creolisms and ribald humor, Chamoiseau infuses the universal terrors, joys, and disappointments of a child's early school days with the unique experiences of a Creole boy forced to confront the dominant culture in a colonial school. School Days mixes understanding with laughter, knowledge with entertainment--in ways that will fascinate and delight readers of all ages.