Why a Booktrail?
2000s: Muslim jihadi comes to the quiet and picturesque area of the Dordogne
2000s: Muslim jihadi comes to the quiet and picturesque area of the Dordogne
Bruno is the policeman in the town of St Denis. It’s a small place but has a surprisingly number of serious crimes. The modern day issue of Muslim Jihadis comes to the fore when the body of an undercover French Muslim policeman is found in the woods. Bruno received a request from him only hours before.
At the same time, a Muslim youth named Sami turns up at a French army base in Afghanistan hoping to get home to St Denis. He is smuggled back by one of Bruno’s army comrades but not long after he is back an American woman turns up with an arrest warrant
Bruno and Dordogne have their hands full and it’s a very dangerous case to get involved with.
The issue of Jihadi and Jihadi recruitment may not seem as if it belongs in the Dordogne but then that is the very issue in the news today – it happens in plain sight in the smallest towns to the largest cities. The story here, has a link to the story of Jewish children who are taken in by Dordogne villagers during the war – the need for people to escape, flee their land and seek to belong when death and destruction is all around. This modern day story is also linked to a real life historical event of the destruction of Mouleydier, a village in the Dordogne region, by the Germans in June 1944.
This small part of France reflects the troubles that people face moving to a new country and the inter-cultural issues they encounter, not to mention the tension and the everyday anxiety on both sides. However what this novel also shows is the difference between Muslims in general and the few that act as radicalists.