Tunesian Yankee by Cécile Oumhani : fever dreams from small Syria

the sand niggers, the young Tunisians Daoud Kaci not to mention, by anyone, and certainly not from a white comrades of the U.S. army. He must front brigades in the cold Winter of 1917 on the West, where it has layers of the immigrants. Dawood Casey, as he of the Americans is called, is fighting for its recognition. The history of this "Tunisian Yankee" tells the story of the Franco-British novelist Cécile Oumhani. Your artfully constructed novel begins with Daoud's time to the front in France, he is soon badly injured.

In the hospital to take care of Daoud, in a fever dream of his young life to reminisce. Scenes of Childhood in Tunis, alternate with those of the young man who emigrates with his authoritarian father in conflict, and schließlich1912 to New York. The mother, a Tscherkessin, had left the family, because they did not want to accept a second wife. So Mouldia was, the black slave of the family, his replacement mother. With your stories of Daoud's horizon widens up in the sub-Saharan. Tunis, the capital of the French protectorate, provides Daoud first of all, contacts to people from all over the world, such as the balloon driver Berensky to encourage Daoud to become aeronaut. However, the French colonialists not to allow a Tunisian. You learn a lot about Tunisia during the protectorate, the discontent of the young people.

Also, the love to the Acrobat Nora goes Daoud on his sick-bed by the head. Mosaic stones from the life of a young man who does not want to leave despite all the blows of fate. Also in "Little Syria", the Arabic district of New York, is it not easier for him, even if he eventually finds a new love. Cécile Oumhani is a fascinating era portrait.

100 years of Tunis, travel to the heart of the fairy tale

Cécile Oumhani: Tunisian Yankee. Roman. From the French by Regina Keil-Sagawe. Osburg Verlag, Hamburg In 2018. 304 pages, 20 €.