{"product_id":"our-riches-9780811228152","title":"Our Riches","description":"\u003cem\u003eOur Riches\u003c\/em\u003e celebrates quixotic devotion and the love of books in the person of Edmond Charlot, who at the age of twenty founded Les Vraies Richesses (Our True Wealth), the famous Algerian bookstore\/publishing house\/lending library. He more than fulfilled its motto \"by the young, for the young,\" discovering the twenty-four-year-old Albert Camus in 1937. His entire archive was twice destroyed by the French colonial forces, but despite financial difficulties (he was hopelessly generous) and the vicissitudes of wars and revolutions, Charlot (often compared to the legendary bookseller Sylvia Beach) carried forward Les Vraies Richesses as a cultural hub of Algiers.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eOur Riches\u003c\/em\u003e interweaves Charlot's story with that of another twenty-year-old, Ryad (dispatched in 2017 to empty the old shop and repaint it). Ryad's no booklover, but old Abdallah, the bookshop's self-appointed, nearly illiterate guardian, opens the young man's mind. Cutting brilliantly from Charlot to Ryad, from the 1930s to current times, from WWII to the bloody 1961 Free Algeria demonstrations in Paris, Adimi delicately packs a monumental history of intense political drama into her swift and poignant novel. But most of all, it's a hymn to the book and to the love of books.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eAdimi, Kaouther:\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e - Born in 1986 in Algiers, \u003cstrong\u003eKaouther Adimi\u003c\/strong\u003e lives in Paris. \u003cem\u003eOur Riches\u003c\/em\u003e, her third novel, was shortlisted for the Goncourt and won the Prix Renaudot, the Prix du Style, the Prix Beur FM Méditerranée, and the Choix Goncourt de l'Italie.\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eAndrews, Chris:\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e - The poet \u003cstrong\u003eCHRIS ANDREWS\u003c\/strong\u003e teaches at the University of Western Sydney, Australia, where he is a member of the Writing and Society Research Centre. He has translated books by Roberto Bolano and César Aira for New Directions. He has won the Anthony Hecht Poetry Prize for his poetry and the Valle-Inclan Prize and the French-American Foundation Translation Prize for his translations.","brand":"New Directions Publishing Corporation","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50413230850322,"sku":"9780811228152","price":11.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_0db7547b-9668-4678-9702-98b5724e0df2.jpg?v=1729350049","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/our-riches-9780811228152","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}