![]() ![]() ![]() A superbly unpatronising depiction of innocence and a child's poignant recognition that, the delights of Marseille and Manhattan notwithstanding, home is where your parents are, however imperfect they may be. Yet alongside this glittering sophistication runs the deep fatigue of a child constantly left as surety in bars while her father scrabbles for sufficient money to pay the bill, and the barely suppressed awareness of a darker adult world of profligacy, philandering, false promises and careless exploitation. A headstrong, defiant child, Kully might not attend school, but she knows all about visas and passports and. She is also - thanks to her youthful mixture of literalism and a deep understanding of metaphor - highly skilled in the puncturing of political cant. Keun's masterstroke is to tell her story from the perspective of a nine-year-old girl. ![]() Catapulted into a nomadic existence in restaurants and hotels across Europe and the States, our ingenious ingénue is already an expert in the correct ways to consume cognac, roll cigarettes, peel crustaceans and manipulate chambermaids. It is 1938, and nine-year-old Kully and her parents are exiled from Germany as a result of her father's anti-Nazi writings. ![]()
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