Algeria Is Beautiful Like America

Olivia had always heard stories about Algeria from her maternalgrandmother, a Black Foot (a ＂Pied-Noir,＂ the French term for Christian andJewish settlers of French Algeria who emigrated to France after the Algerian Warof Independence). After her grandmother’s death, Olivia found some of hergrandmother’s journals and letters describing her homeland. Now, ten yearslater, she resolves to travel to Algeria and experience the country for herself;she arrives alone, with her grandmother’s postcards and letters in tow, anda single phone number in her pocket of an Algerian, Djaffar, who will actas her guide. Olivia’s quest to understand her origins will bring her to facequestions about heritage, history, shame, friendship, memory, nostalgia,fantasy, the nature of exile, and our unending quest to understand who we areand where we come from.