Today, Alice is going to marry Mad. They have been friends since childhood. They have played together, cried together, and taken stands against injustice together. Today, Alice is going to marry Mad–not because after years of friendship they have suddenly become romantically involved, but because Alice is white and French, and Mad is neither. Despite having spent almost his entire life in France, Mad, born in Mali, is now being threatened with deportation. Today, Alice is going to marry Mad–because getting married seems the only possible solution to Mad's predicament. Today, Alice is going to marry Mad, and for Alice this step marks the end of adolescence, the end of her years of innocence and the start of adulthood. In lyrical and colloquial prose, Alice Zeniter tells a tender generational story about love, politics, rebellion, and friendship. Take This Man is a delightful work of fiction by a talented young author.
Author
Alice Zeniter is a French novelist, translator, scriptwriter, dramatist and director. She has won a Prix Renaudot young adult award for her third novel, Juste avant l'Oubli, and a Prix Goncourt young adult for her fourth novel, L'Art de Perdre. Zeniter published her first novel, Deux moins un égal zéro, at the age of 16. Her second novel, Jusque dans nos bras, was published in 2010 and translated in English as Take This Man. Her latest novel, L'Art de Perdre, won multiple prizes and awards.
