Angelina's Children
by Alice Ferney

Cover Design: Killian Strong

Paperback Original

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"Few gypsies want to be seen as poor, although many are. Such was the case with old Angelina’s sons, who possessed nothing other than their caravan and their gypsy blood. But it was young blood that coursed through their veins, a dark and vital flow that attracted women and fathered numberless children. And, like their mother, who had known the era of horses and caravans, they spat upon the very thought that they might be pitied."

So begins the story of a matriarch and her tribe, ostracized by society and exiled to the outskirts of the city. Esther, a young librarian from the town, comes to the camp to introduce the children to books and stories. She gradually gains their confidence and accompanies them, as observer and participant, through an eventful and tragic year.

Alice Ferney’s distinctive style powerfully involves the reader in the family’s disasters, its comic moments and its battles against an uncomprehending, hostile world; in the love lives of the five boys, the bravery of the children, and, eventually, in Angelina’s final gesture of defiance.

Angelina’s Children won the literary prize Culture et Bibliothèques pour Tous.

Author Information
Alice Ferney, born in Paris in 1967, studied business management at university and combines her life as a novelist with that of a professor at the University of Orleans.

The Translator
Emily Read is a well known translator from French. She has published a number of titles of non-fiction and fiction, including 'The Reckoning' by Georges Simenon.

Praise for Angelina's Children
''An extended family of gypsies into whose midst comes a visiting librarian form the basis for Alice Ferney's beautiful...'' Glasgow Herald

''A wonderful portrait of a woman both imperial and bruised, a greying ravaged mother-wolf that still controls all those around her. A novel of rhythm and grace, a beautiful voyage with the gypsies.'' Le Monde

Internet links
Ferney-Biography and Bibliography
perso.orange.fr/ mondalire/ ferney.htm

Ferney-Author Profile
www.panoramadulivre.com/ htmlfr/ selec0409f.htm