French Moroccan Leïla Slimani‘s own family was the inspiration when she started her critically acclaimed trilogy: The Country of Others, Watch Us Dance and this year’s publication, J'emporterai le feu (“I will carry the fire”).

We follow the Belhaj family through three generations, from when Mathilde leaves France to follow her new husband Amine to his home country Morocco after the second world war, and their struggle to find their place between two cultures that are rather hostile to each other, to their daughter, Aïcha through her childhood in Morocco and studies in France, before the last book takes the story up to our time through Aïcha’s daughter Mia.

This epic family saga contains love stories and sex, violence and racism, while the family’s path is continually affected by the historical currents of Morocco and the wider world. French Mathilde grapple with the strict role for women in the Moroccan countryside, while her daughter Aïcha feels ogled and set apart as a Moroccan in France. In a vibrant and immediate language, Slimani portrays the various family members’ struggles to belong, and to create a home and a family.

Leïla Slimani is one of the most central Francophone authors today. Her definitive breakthrough came with the award-winning thriller Lullaby, for which she was awarded the prestigious Prix Goncourt in 2016. She has written a number of critically acclaimed novels and non fiction titles.

Slimani was joined by associate professor of French literature, Kjerstin Aukrust, for a conversation about home, belonging and a family history.

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