Summary of The Life Before Us
“The Life Before Us” is set in 1970 in Belleville, a multicultural neighbourhood in Paris. Momo, a teenage Muslim boy, lives in an orphanage run by an elderly Jewish woman called Madame Rosa. She is a Holocaust-survivor who cares for the children of prostitutes. Momo recounts his life in the orphanage and his deep affection for Madame Rosa, whom he considers his true mother and cares for as her health deteriorates.
Reasons to read The Life Before UsÂ
“The Life Before Us” is a heartwarming story about immigration, ageing, and prostitution, told from the perspective of an abandoned child. Its diverse cast of characters reflects the immigrant communities of Paris. Romain Gary was a Lithuanian-born French novelist, film director, screenwriter, and diplomat. He is the only author to have won the prestigious Prix Goncourt twice: first in 1956 for “The Roots of Heaven” (“Les racines du ciel”), and again in 1975 for “The Life Before Us” (“La vie devant soi”), originally published under the pseudonym Émile Ajar. “The Life Before Us” was adapted into the 1977 film “Madame Rosa”, starring Simone Signoret, which won the Oscar for best foreign language film, and into the 2020 Italian-language film “La vita davanti a sé” (“The Life Ahead”), starring Sophia Loren, with the setting relocated to Bari.
Setting: Paris, Belleville (France)
Original title: La vie devant soi
Year of publication: 1975
Nr of pages: 208
