NOVEL

A social satire with a keen eye on the excesses of the contemporary commercial world. A funny, rich and uncompromising portrait of French and African societies.

Debout-Payé is Ossiri's novel, an Ivorian student who became a security guard after landing without papers in France in 1990. It is a song in honour of a family where, from father to son, one becomes a security guard in Paris, in honour of a mother and more generally in honour of the African community in Paris, with its failings, its sufferings and its differences. It is also the political history of an immigrant and his views of our country, through the evolution of the security guard profession since the 1960s - the triumphant Françafrique - after September 11.

AWARDS/SHORTLISTED

- Gibert Joseph 2014 Prix des libraires
- Best début novel of the year 2014 by Lire magazine.
- Kaïlcedra Grand Prix des lycéens et collégiens, in Abidjan
- Grand Prix des lycéens 2015