A review by zhelana
Our Riches by Kaouther Adimi

challenging dark informative reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

This book was alright. I mean it wasn't spectacular but it wasn't bad either. It's basically about a guy who founds a book store which becomes more of a library and the life of this book store through world war ii when there was no paper to be had and he published most of the books he sold himself, and there was a shortage of paper, ink, and everything else. He survived wwii just to move to France to try to open another similar store, but then they run out of paper and can't get any and he goes bankrupt after selling the initial store to his brother. Then there's the freedom movement for Algiers and the bookstore suffers again. It survives all of that. Then in 2017 the store goes out of business for reasons I didn't quite understand and a kid gets an internship cleaning it out. Most of the story is really about wwii and the revolution, though. I'm not sure why the parts about the modern cleaning were included at all, but it did really change the meaning of the story from one of hope to one of despair. If after all that you still just go out of business, what hope is there for anyone? So anyway, I don't even know if I liked this book. There were parts I liked and parts that I didn't, and I came away from it feeling pretty meh.