Bucheon City of Literature

Leïla Slimani’s novel 『Le pays des autres(The Country of Others)』 unravels the tangled threads of modern-day diaspora through the troubled life of a woman married to a man from a former colony. This postcolonial landscape encompasses a curious mixture of political tensions, clashes between feudal traditions and modernity, and contradictory gender roles, each leaving its marks on the body. The hardships borne by that body, passed down from mother to daughter, gradually generate the energy of rebirth. In that process, readers are struck by the bodily changes wrought by visceral experience. The gentle ripples of awakening rising from the depths of the soul bear witness to the mystery of existence.