As a noted writer, Le Clerc is given access to the vaults of the Musée de l’Homme, and picks out the severed skull of a small girl he imagines is ‘Zohra’. His address to Zohra’s skull includes accounts of his own life and experience as an Algerian immigrant, as well as of the violent history of the country and its conquest by the French. The unflinching tone he uses to describe the barbarity of the invading forces contrasts with the lyricism of his recollection of the beauty of his country and its people.

PRAISE FOR THE SKULL

'It is the discovery of the skull of a 7 year old girl, lodged in a simple shoe-box, that makes him decide to write The Skull, a striking hybrid novel, part historical quest, part autobiography and part fiction.' - Le Monde

'Xavier Le Clerc writes a memorial to those close to him, to the humiliated without land, without rights, without a burial ground. As is the case for Zohra whose skull he finds in the basement of the Musée de l'Homme.' - Le Figaro

'It is an uplifting book but above all the writing is magnificent. For me the most beautiful passages are those of anger and emotion, those where Le Clerc writes of the dignity of his parents and of a people confronting oppression.' -Quotidien Matin