Series: On the Margins

Bessora & Barroux

Alpha
Abidjan to Gare du Nord

Translator

Mirna Šimat

Series: On the Margins

Bessora & Barroux

Alpha
Abidjan to Gare du Nord

Translator

Mirna Šimat

Alpha lives alone in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire ever since his wife and son left for Paris without a visa. He has heard nothing from them since. Desperate, he decides to leave everything behind in order to find them. He can take different routes to Europe, but he faces possibly years of illegal travelling. With a visa, Alpha’s journey to reunite with his family would take a matter of hours. Without one, he is adrift for months.
Along the way, he encounters unforgettable cast of fellow travellers, and everybody is prepared to face a journey full of dangers rather than stay buried in one place, without a future.

Never-ending dusty roads. Crooked human traffickers in the desert, refugee camps, diseases, overcrowded boats. But despite it all, Alpha stays the course.

Destination: Pariz, Gare du Nord.

„Alpha gives a name and face to the multitudes in refugee camps all over the world. An important story for all of us to know.“
New York Journal of Books

“This stark, poetic story personalizes immigration. For all libraries.” ―School Library Journal

“Ground-breaking… Stunning text.” ―Guardian

“By homing in on the experience of one symbolic individual, Alpha humanizes the too-often faceless tragedy.” ―Booklist

“Once you read this deeply troubling book, passing by, looking away, is no longer an option.” ―Michael Morpurgo, British author

Writer

Bessora

Born in Belgium to a Swiss mother and a Gabonese father. Grew up in Europe, United States of America and Africa. After finishing HEC Paris (École des hautes études commerciales de Paris) and a career in international finance in Geneva, she acquired a PhD in Anthropology and wrote her first novel in 1999. Her novel Les Taches d’encre (Ink Stains), published in 2001 by Serpent à Plumes, won the Fénéon award, and her novel Cueillez-moi, jolis Messieurs… (Pick Me Nice Gentlemen), published by Gallimard, was awarded with the Grand Prix littéraire d’Afrique noire in 2007.

Illustrator

Barroux

Spent most of his childhood in north Africa. After his return to France and art school, he began working as an art director in various advertising agencies. A few years after that, he took off and moved first to Canada, then the United States of America where he began a brilliant career as a press and children’s book illustrator. He collaborated with many magazines, such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, Forbes, and published several award-winning children’s books. Motivated by his affinity for colours and the fantastical, Barroux makes his illustrations in a traditional manner, combining linocuts, lead pencil, acrylic…

Translator

Mirna Šimat

Mirna Šimat (1984) graduated with a degree in French language and literature and Comparative literature from the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Zagreb. She has worked as a translator since 2006. She has translated many literary genres, ranging from comic books and novels to essays and theoretical works. She is a regular translator for the Croatian publication of Le Monde Diplomatique newspaper. Šimat occasionally translated and subtitles films. In 2012/2013 she spent three months as a Translator Factory’s scholar at the International Centre for Literary Translators in Arles, France.