Literary Fiction — The Book Roads

The Pillar of Salt

Albert Memmi

Growing up in the Jewish quarter of French-colonised Tunis, Alexandre Benillouche is caught between several worlds. Born into a poor family of Tunisian Jews, with an Italian Jewish father and a Berber mother, he is exposed to different cultural traditions from an early age. An exceptionally gifted student, Alexandre earns the opportunity to attend French schools, where education opens doors to a world of privilege but also exposes the prejudice and exclusions that separate him from his European classmates. As he moves towards adulthood, Alexandre increasingly questions the religious traditions of his family while discovering that assimilation into French society will never be straightforward. Neither fully accepted by the colonial establishment nor entirely at home in his own community, he struggles to reconcile his Jewish, Arab, African, and French identities. The outbreak of the Second World War and the Nazi occupation of Tunisia intensify his sense of displacement. Semi-autobiographical and deeply introspective, The Pillar of Salt explores colonialism, cultural alienation, antisemitism, and the painful search for belonging in a society divided by class, religion, and race.

Tunisia 1955