From the author of A Novel Bookstore comes this delightful story about friendship across racial and economic barriers set in contemporary Paris.

Édith can hardly believe it when she learns that Fadila, her sixty-year-old housemaid, is completely illiterate. How can a person living in Paris in the third millennium possibly survive without knowing how to read or write? How does she catch a bus, or pay a bill, or withdraw money from the bank? Why it's unacceptable! She thus decides to become Fadila's French teacher. But teaching something as complex as reading and writing to an adult is rather more challenging than she thought. Their lessons are short, difficult, and tiring. Yet, during these lessons, the oh-so-Parisian Édith and Fadila, an immigrant from Morocco, begin to understand one another as never before, and form this understanding will blossom a surprising and delightful friendship. Édith will enter into contact with a way of life utterly unfamiliar to her, one that is unforgiving at times, but also full of joy and dignity.

Laurence Cossé
Laurence Cossé’s A Novel Bookstore (Europa Editions, 2010), her ninth novel and an Indie Bound bestseller, was described by the San Francisco Chronicle as “marvelous and stimulating.” She was a journalist and critic before devoting herself entirely to fiction. She lives in France.

• Nov 12 2013
  World Literature Today: "Laurence Cossé contrasts her characters’ lives with respect and an understanding of their often-divergent cultures."
  
• May 10 2013
  The Big Issue: "Wonderful."
  
• Apr 2 2013
  New York Journal of Books: "Beautifully written and translated from the French, BITTER ALMONDS should be required reading."
  
• Mar 27 2013
  Of Books and Reading: "BITTER ALMONDS is in a league of its own."