The foundling
The foundling (French: Un aller simple (“one way trip”)) is a novel by Didier van Cauwelaert from 1994 . He received the Prix Goncourt for this .
action
Aziz, who grew up with gypsies , presumably Roma , in Marseille , is a foundling . His foster father pushed his birth parents away with his car, and so they died in a "traffic accident". Aziz, named after the Citroën Ami 6 in which it was found, is seen by the gypsies as a sign of heaven. Mamita and Vasile therefore take him in as foster parents, but as a “non-gypsy” he never fully integrates into the group. Aziz's arbitrary last name is Kemal . For pragmatic reasons, Aziz has Moroccan citizenship , as a forged passport from this nation is considerably cheaper than a French one. He is leaner than other children and most of the time when he plays football he takes on the role of referee because he cannot decide which team to play for. Aziz sympathizes on the one hand with the Arabs because of his citizenship, on the other hand with the Gypsies, since they represent his "family".
When he was nine years old, he began to stand up against burglaries. At the age of eleven, Aziz dropped out of school, although he was very fond of it, and specialized in stealing car radios. He sent the first stolen radio to his former geography teacher by post, intended as a thank you for the great time Aziz was able to spend with him at school. The teacher had previously given Aziz an atlas of the world filled with regional legends. At the age of 19, Aziz was arrested at his engagement party and was supposed to be deported to his supposed home country of Morocco. A jeweler accuses him of stealing the engagement ring. Aziz actually bought it, but didn't get an invoice, because otherwise he wouldn't buy anything, just steal it. Since Aziz is handsome, an example is made of him with the media. He is assigned a “social worker”: Jean-Pierre Schneider is supposed to support him in integrating himself into Moroccan society so that French society is convinced that it is a humane deportation. Jean-Pierre Schneider is busy with his own problems. His boss has transferred him to Marseille so that he can approach Jean-Pierre's wife. According to his passport, Aziz was born in Irghiz, a fictional village which, according to Aziz, is located in the high Atlas Mountains . He tells his integration officer that he is the only one who has ever left the village and that he has been given the task of saving his village. He got this story from his geography teacher in the Atlas of Legends. On arrival in Morocco, the two choose a pretty young woman, Valérie d'Armeray de Villeneuve, a former tour guide, as their tour guide. During the trip, Schneider takes notes in order to write a book about Aziz and thus fulfill his lifelong dream. He also hopes that he can win his wife back if the novel makes him successful. Valérie first seduces Aziz and finally Jean-Pierre. She shows both of them the beautiful nature of Morocco and knows how to deal with both of them. She is the perfect match for Aziz and Jean-Pierre because she knows what she wants and leads an orderly life. Shortly before his death, she tells Jean-Pierre that Irghiz does not exist. He dies a little later from an untreated disease. Aziz feels called to finish Jean-Pierre's book and uses his notes to do so. He brings Jean-Pierre's body and the book to his parents in Lorraine . Aziz tells them that their son was killed in a kidnapping. The parents are grateful to Aziz and take him in as their new son. Aziz lives on the life of Jean-Pierre Schneider.
literature
Text output
- Un Aller Simple . 1st edition. Editions Albin Michel, Paris 1994, ISBN 2-226-07010-9 .
- The foundling . 1st edition. Hoffmann and Campe , Hamburg 1996, ISBN 3-455-00845-3 (German first edition).
- Peter Müller, Helga Zoch (ed.): Un aller simple: Roman . Reclam , Stuttgart 2003, ISBN 3-15-009109-8 .
- The foundling . 1st edition. Construction paperback, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-7466-2666-6 .
Secondary literature
- Bernd Krauss: Reading key Didier van Cauwelaert, Un aller simple . Reclam, Stuttgart 2010, ISBN 978-3-15-015424-3 .