Monsieur Ibrahim and the Flowers of the Koran and Oscar and the Lady in Pink

Features

• Cover Type: Hard Cover with 128 pages
• Published by: Other Press February 17, 2004
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 1590510917
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-1590510919
• Book Dimensions: 7.8 x 5 x 0.7 inches
• Weighs: 5.6 ounces

From Publishers Weekly
Those who believe that America has had an undue influence on France need look no further for evidence than the two short novellas collected here. Schmitt, a French writer making his English-language debut, has produced stories with the arc and tone of Hollywood tearjerkers. In the title novella, a Muslim shopkeeper befriends a lonely Jewish boy named Moses, aka Momo. Momo's mother vanished when he was young, and his father, a failed lawyer, stays around only long enough to tease Momo with stories of Popol, his supposedly perfect older brother. Ibrahim, the shopkeeper, takes Momo under his wing, instructing him about life, love and the old ways of a country he's left behind. Schmitt, an accomplished playwright, is clearly accustomed to having actors fill in the blanks in his work, because without them the characters remain as thin as cardboard, vague sketches of well-meaning intercultural understanding. The second novella, "Oscar and the lady in Pink," repeats the tale of an abandoned boy and a surrogate parent, this time set in a hospital ward. Ten-year-old Oscar, a cancer patient known as the Bald Egg, turns to an elderly hospital volunteer named Mamie-Rose for comfort. As Oscar moves toward his inevitable end, he tries to build relationships, though fleeting, with those around him. While some of the scenes between Oscar and his fellow child-patients are genuinely moving, the overall conceit - the story is told in the form of letters to God - is so sentimental that it crushes the more subtle elements.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Product Description
Set in the 1960 in Paris' Jewish Quarter, Monsieur Ibrahim and the Flowers of the Koran is about a troubled Jewish boy, Moses, or Momo, who strikes up an unlikely friendship with a solitary Muslim shopkeeper named Monsieur Ibrahim. Momo's hilarious yet heart-wrenching story begins when loses his virginity in a bordello at the age of 11. Ibrahim offers Momo his ear and advice, and gradually the precocious boy that there is more to life than whores and stealing groceries. When Momo's father, a passive-aggressive lawyer who neglects his son who neglects his son's well being, disappears and is found dead, Ibrahim adopts the newly orphaned boy. Eventually the two decide to make a trip across Europe to the birthplace of Monsieur Ibrahim that brings them to the most important crossroads of their lives. As this deeply funny and exquisitely crafted plot unravels, it reveals how we learn the most essential aspects of life and death when we expect them the least. Oscar and the lady in Pink gives us an entirely different tale of love and courage. Oscar is ten years old and dying of leukemia. He knows that his bone marrow transplant has failed, but the only human being who will talk to him about dying is his beloved Mamie-Rose, an elderly volunteer who visits the sick children. When it becomes clear that Oscar's time is growing short, Mamie-Rose gives him an idea: he should pretend that every day he lives represents the passage of ten years, and at the end of each day he should write down his experiences as a letter to God so that he might feel less alone. With Mamie-Rose as his guide, Oscar begins an uplifting journey through days made fuller by the richness of his imagination and spirit. Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt has given us two illuminating tales about suffering, love, compassion, and faith both in God and humanity. These stories invite readers to laugh, cry, and stop to reflect on the grace and wonder that can be found in every heart.

Reader Reviews
Yesterday - a day filled with joy and with disappointment - my last act before returning home was to stop in at a snug bookstore where I knew I would be welcomed and my soul would find comfort. I came to buy "The Secret Life of Bees," but when I went to purchase it, the owner (a muse of music and literature) offered me the book containing Schmidts two small novellas and said "just read them and call me when you've finished them - or just bring the book back." She will not be getting her book back. I spent the whole of last evening, sans TV, sans music, digesting the beautiful, simple stories. "Monsieur Ibrahim and the Flowers of the Koran" seemed at first a simple uninterrupted line, but gradually the small pathways took me on a journey that brought tears, shouts of laughter, and more than the occasional re-read of a sentence or paragraph. "Oscar and the Lady in Pink" again pulled me in with its simplicity. Too easy a tale, I thought. But while the tale was simple, the getting there was not. The use of a particular word, a gesture, an inward thought of the young dying narrator made this a journey of insight and deep understanding. I turned off the light, held the book to my chest, and let tears flow and thoughts roam for well over an hour. I literally didn't want to put the book down. It stayed next to me during the night. My day was touched by grace and generosity, from the bookseller and from the author. Read the book. Hold it close to you. And give a copy to someone you love.