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 500 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 the shocking cruelty with which they attempt to quell resistance.

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