Book description
Over seven decades, from 1940 to 2010, the pieds-noirs Cassars live in an itinerant state-separated in the chaos of World War II, running from a complicated colonial homeland, and, after Algerian independence, without a homeland at all. This Strange Eventful History, told with historical sweep, is above all a family…
Why read it?
3 authors picked This Strange Eventful History as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
A fictitious history of the sweet sadness of life of a pied-noir family (French family with ties to Algeria) displaced after World War II.
The novel immersed me into a world and a family across time and space.
A sweeping family saga of a French Algerian family, who are pied noirs--people of European descent who lived in Algeria during French colonial rule from 1830-1962.
I was swept along by the story of a family torn apart by World War II and then displaced in the diaspora. Although Messud's family isn't Jewish, their story reminded me of my family and our journey in the diaspora.
The sheer scope of the time period covered, the emotional range of the characters and their lives, and the sumptuousness of Messud's language were just glorious. It was a feast of a book.
If you love This Strange Eventful History...
The Rosewood Penny
2023 Queer Indie Award Nominee!
The dragons of Yuro have been hunted to extinction.
On a small, isolated island, in a reclusive forest, lives bandit leader Marani and her brother Jacks. With their outlaw band they rob from the rich to feed themselves, raiding carriages and dodging the occasional vindictive…
Want books like This Strange Eventful History?
Our community of 12,000+ authors has personally recommended 100 books like This Strange Eventful History.
Share your top 3 reads of 2025!
And get a beautiful page showing off your 3 favorite reads.
1,343
readers submitted
so far, will you?
📚 If you like This Strange Eventful History, you might also like...
Portrait of an Artist as a Young Woman
Kate from Jules et Jim meets I Love Dick.
A young woman filmmaker’s journey of self-discovery, set against a backdrop of the sexual liberation movement of the 1970s and 1980s. In Portrait of an Artist as a Young Woman, we follow Ana Fried as she faces the ultimate…
Malcolm Before X
Malcolm Before X is about finding a way to continue moving forward after everything has been taken from you. While in prison, Malcolm Little discovered the power of reading and found a way to transform his character and become a better man. This half-biography focuses on that transformation, especially his…
