So Close

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So Close

Hélène Cixous

Description

In So Close, the internationally renowned writer Hélène Cixous recounts a return to her native Algeria after a more than thirty-year absence. Before she can decide to go, she must sift through large parts of her past in a land where she never felt at home and, from a young age, knew she must leave. Above all, she must confront the depths of her mother’s rejection of the country that had rejected her despite years of devotion to the poor women of Algiers. As she is struggling with this decision, she receives a message from Zohra Drif, with whom she has had no contact since their school days, which was just before Zohra joined the Algerian FLN and become a heroine in the uprising against French rule in her homeland. They meet in Paris for the first time in more than fifty years and soon afterward the narrator departs for Algiers.

The latter part of the narrative brings a rush of sensations, impressions, memories, and new encounters as the narrator revisits sites from her past in Algiers and especially in Oran, the city of her birth, the city of the family’s happiness before her father’s death when she was a young girl. The quest to find his grave again in the overgrown Jewish cemetery of Algiers leads to a startlingly moving scene that closes the voyage and the book.

About the Author

Hélène Cixous, Centre de Recherches en Études Féminines at Paris VIII University, France

Features

A major new book by one of the leading feminist writers in France today
Like many of her books, Cixous blends fiction and autobiography to craft a unique literary work with the distinctive style and voice that have made her world famous
The book recounts the author's return to her native Algeria after a long absence and interweaves intimate descriptions of family and friends with dreams, imagined and real conversations, as well as reflections on the past and future
Her close friend, the late Jacques Derrida, features prominently and this text will therefore appeal to all those who admire both philosophers and are interested in this enduring friendship between them
Cixous is very well-known in the English-speaking world and her work is widely read, especially in the U.S

To Purchase this product, please visit

https://dev.store.wiley.com/en-gb/So+Close-p-9780745644363