Najat El Hachmi recommends a novel that made her dream

Barcelona"I just finished reading a novel that I think is a little gem: The staple (The agrafe), by Maryline Desbiolles," says Najat El Hachmi, amazed by the prose of the French writer born in Ugine in 1959 and author of novels such as Anchise, Femina Prize winner in 1999. "It is subtle and written with a very natural lyricism," adds El Hachmi about The staple, a book published in 2024 in France, where it won the Le Monde prize. Desboilles tells the story of Emma Fulconis, a teenager from Nice who is bitten by a dog and insulted by the owner, who tells her that his dog doesn't like Arabs.

In parallel, the author tells the story of Emma's mother's family, a Harki family: the Algerian community that during the Algerian war of independence sided with France and thestatus quo colonial, and was later abandoned by the French state, which considered it a nuisance.

"The staple It talks about how the past and our origins clog us up and bite us even if we don't know them. Or precisely because we don't know them," says Najat El Hachmi, a naturally reflective author of identities, conflict, and coexistence, and the author of novels such as The last patriarch (2008; Ramon Llull Prize) and The foreign daughter (2015; Sant Jordi Award and Ciutat de Barcelona Award) and ARA collaborator.

"Maryline Desbiolles's novel made me dream; literally, because while I was reading it, I dreamed I was inside the novel. For me, that means it's very good; the fact that the author's subconscious penetrates me means it's a work of art." , hatred, old scars, and everyday resistance. The staple It is the first novel by Desboilles to be published in the state, and it comes from the publishing house Las Afueras, with a translation into Spanish by Blanca Gago.