Highlights Essential reading about the challenges of contemporary Arab life in France A prophetic novel that captures the spirit of contemporary cultural tensions Now available for the first time in Arabic When Lounès is suspended from school a sequence of events changes his life Innocently caught up in a heroin deal that turns ugly, the young man faces a media-fed storm of prejudice and protest. Writing with the tautness and tension of a thriller, Rachedi observes as his young hero inspires and unites otherwise isolated suburban residents, with surprising results. Mabrouck Rachedi Born in 1976, Mabrouck Rachedi lives in Paris. With an MA in economics he became a stockbroker before devoting himself to writing. Inspired by the philosopher Lao-tzu, Le poids d’une ame was Rachedi’s first novel and was written just before the suburban Paris uprisings of 2005.