Attacking Earth and Sun

This searing historical fiction immerses us in the brutal early days of the 19th-century French colonization of Algeria.

The highly anticipated English-language debut of a prize-winning author who tackles the taboo of France’s colonial past.

In search of a prosperous life, Séraphine and her family brave the dangerous journey to France’s newly conquered Algerian territory, along with five hundred likeminded citizens. But the realities of the colony soon give the lie to the French government’s promises: inadequate shelter, hostile weather, sickness, and a native population whose anger and desperation threaten to boil over into violence.

As the settlers gradually, painfully establish a community and a church in this foreign land, the French army wreaks devastation on the Algerian people and their villages. Through the eyes of a soldier—constantly reminded by his captain, “You’re no angels!”—we witness their shocking cruelty as they attempt to quell resistance.

With chiseled, haunting prose reminiscent of Faulkner, Mathieu Belezi condenses years of historical research into a powerfully human account. Attacking Earth and Sun vividly exposes the hell that was colonization, far from the pioneer dream sold by Western powers.

Mathieu Belezi is the author of more than a dozen novels. His writing career began with Le petit roi, which won the Marguerite-Audoux Prize in 1999. His novel Attacking Earth and Sun has won the Prix Livre Inter and Le Monde Literary Prize. Having traveled widely and even taught in Louisiana, he now divides his time between France and Italy.

Lara Vergnaud is a translator of prose, creative nonfiction, and scholarly works from the French. She is the recipient of two PEN/Heim Translation Fund Grants and a French Voices Grand Prize, and has been nominated for the National Translation Award. She lives in France.