January 11, 2020, 11:30
Alliance française d'Ottawa
Do you enjoy reading ? Are you learning French or are you a French speaker ? Discover a new Francophone writer – classic or contemporary – through a reading and a discussion around themes suggested by Solène, one of our French teachers.
10 $ per session, free for members and students (B1 French level advised)
Momo, a Muslim orphan boy who is about 10 years old, lives under the care of an old Jewish woman named Madame Rosa, who was a prisoner at Auschwitz and later became a prostitute in Paris. Momo’s mother abandoned him with Madame Rosa, who is essentially a babysitter for the children of prostitutes. They live on the sixth floor of an apartment building in Belleville, a district of Paris. In their apartment building, Madame Rosa made a small hideout in a cellar, where she keeps artifacts of her Jewish heritage. The young boy tells the story of his life in the orphanage and of his relationship with Madame Rosa as she becomes increasingly sick, culminating with her death, after she had expressed her desire to not die in hospital on life support, saying that she does not want to be a vegetable being forced to live.
273 pages, available at the Ottawa librairy.
