Life Before Us

Now back in print, this heartbreaking novel by Romain Gary has inspired two movies, including the Netflix feature The Life AheadMomo has been one of the ever-changing ragbag of whores children at Madame Rosas boarding house in Paris ever since he can remember. But when the check that pays for his keep no longer arrives and as Madame Rosa becomes too ill to climb the stairs to their apartment, he determines to support her any way he can. This sensitive, slightly macabre love story between Momo and Madame Rosa has a supporting cast of transvestites, pimps, and witch doctors from Pariss immigrant slum, Belleville. Profoundly moving, The Life Before Us won Frances premier literary prize, the Prix Goncourt.