An Algerian Dream: The Story of Lisette Vincent, a Woman from Algeria

Dagorno, Paris, 1994, 279 pages (reissued PUF 2001) - ISBN 978-2910019167 (1st ed.) / ISBN 978-2130521541 (PUF)

A captivating biography of Lisette Vincent, born in 1908 in Oranie into a family of settlers, who embodies the dream of Franco-Algerian fraternity.

A pioneering teacher, she revolutionized teaching by applying Freinet methods and installing a printing press in the school, thus defying colonial conventions.

Her extraordinary journey took her to Barcelona in 1938, where she joined the International Brigades, and then to the reconstitution of the Algerian Communist Party during the Second World War, which earned her imprisonment. A tireless campaigner for Algerian independence, she became a citizen in 1962 before emigrating in the 1970s.

Einaudi sensitively portrays this intrepid and modest woman who always refused an imposed marriage and devoted her life to the struggle for the emancipation of peoples.

Through this story, the author resurrects a buried part of Algerian history and illustrates the complexity of relations between Europeans and Algerians, far from ideological simplifications.

This rare and precious testimony on colonization, seen from the side of those who fought against it, offers a unique perspective on the Algerian 20th century.