So Distant From My Life
SynopsisPlot
Jeanphi, a young man from the fictional West African city Ouabany, has one obsession that will determine the fate of his life – migration. He scrapes together money to take the illegal route across the Sahara, making it as far as Morocco before being repatriated. Increasingly desperate, Jeanphi meets an elegant French widower who for his part is despairing at the insurmountable bureaucratic hurdles for his charitable endeavour in Jeanphi’s country. A window opens to opportunity – but it will also bring tragedy.
Story
About this book
Jeanphi is a young man living in Ouabany, a fictional city in West Africa. His single driving ambition is to leave. He saves what money he can and sets out on the illegal route north across the Sahara, reaching Morocco before being sent back. The novel follows his growing desperation as he searches for another way out, and the lengths to which that desperation leads him.
In Ouabany, Jeanphi encounters a French widower struggling with bureaucratic obstacles while trying to set up a charitable project in the country. The two men, each blocked by systems they cannot navigate alone, recognize something useful in one another. What begins as a practical arrangement opens a path forward for Jeanphi, but the opportunity carries consequences neither man fully anticipates.
Monique Ilboudo is a Burkinabé author whose work often centers on social questions in and around Burkina Faso. In this novel, she traces the mechanics of irregular migration from the perspective of someone who has already failed at it once and is willing to try again on different terms. The story sets personal ambition against the rigid structures of borders, paperwork, and unequal access to movement.
