The narrator describes her daily struggle as if she were a spectator, a stranger to her own destiny, in a state of quasi-dissociation, necessary to stay on course. She moves forward as if on a thread, as an outsider, as a passenger, avoiding snags, her gaze fixed on the horizon of a world ready to topple. — Livres Hebdo

A novel that is both personal and universal on the pains of exile. — France Télévision

Daring to publish, more than twenty years later, the first novel she wanted to write with her rage, her guts, her pride, her nascent political consciousness: at 49 years old, this is what the secretive, modest but powerful and violent novelist and essayist Léonora Miano dares. — Télérama

Through a dry and angry tone, the story contains the seeds of the author’s favorite themes, including racism and the scars of colonization. — Le Nouvel Observateur

This is the first novel that Léonora Miano, today a great figure of French litterature, wrote at the end of the 90s, when she was living in a difficult situation. More than 20 years later, she finally released it, and its acuity is poignant. —Marie Claire

While reading this book we were unable to breathe, we were stuck in this shelter with the characters. It is an extremely strong novel that describes a world that is unfortunately real and unknown. — 20 Minutes

Stardust, a very personal novel by Léonora Miano (…), strikes by its literary power, its galvanizing frankness. — Page

A novel as powerful and luminous as a rough diamond. — Point de vue

Louise is a twenty-three-year-old young mother from Cameroon, living in Paris with her partner and her daughter, baby Bliss, almost one-year-old.

Louise’s partner does not make a living and his mother, who disapproves of his relationship with Louise out of racism, will stop paying the rent. Louise then decides to leave him, because as she puts it, she « already has a child and does not want to have two ».

Stardust is the story of Louise and Bliss’s summer in a shelter in the North of Paris where the noise and absence of intimacy are the main ingredients of daily life. It is also a strong depiction of the margins of French society, made of racism, social exclusion, and loneliness.

And it is a beautiful gallery of portraits of these women – Maya, Virginie, Saran, from Maghreb or sub-Saharan Africa – who were abused by men and fell into addiction.

Stardust is the story of a woman who chooses life out of despair, and finds strength in motherhood.