
A Saturday in May Paris It's the eve of the French presidential elections
- ' The Election of the Century' say the newspaper headlines
- & Chaouch the nation's first Arab candidate has victory in his sights It has been a long campaign & with his wife Esther & daughter Jasmine by his side he spends the remaining hours with close advisors in a hotel in Nimes Much of the dinner table chatter revolves around Jasmine's boyfriend; Fouad Nerrouche a well-known actor with the same Algerian origins as her father who has just publicly endorsed Chaouch's candidacy However shallow it may seem it's difficult to ignore the influence of celebrity support in this complex & unpredictable race The same day Saint-Etienne The Nerrouche family is frantically preparing for a grand wedding & Fouad himself is there to help out But younger cousin Krim
- who has recently lost his job
- is becoming increasingly agitated & no one knows why As the day goes on it becomes clear that the cousin's problems go far deeper than unemployment Krim has been stealing from a local gang leader & after being discovered found himself indebted to his powerful cousin Nazir
- Fouad's brother Nazir is a very shady figure & is heavily involved in a dark underworld of crime Together their plans will cause Fouad's two very different worlds to meet in a way no one would have dared to imagine Within a few hours the threads start to unravel & the collision between the destiny of a family & the hopes of a country becomes inevitable With the pacing of a thriller Louatah melds the tense atmosphere of a family saga with the gripping suspense of a political drama into one breathtaking read