Saïda grows up as part of an arab minority in the trench town "Couscous", outside the city of Douala in Kamerun. In the disappointment that she isn't a boy, her father gets in a fight with a neighbour, accidently poking his eye out. This event receives a hefty fine from the local chieftain, and puts a mark on Saïdas upbringing. Somehow she never quite gets in the marrying circus, and before even realising it herself she's getting too old. When finally touching on relations with the opposite sex, she inadvertedly causes a scandal and it becomes impossible for her to stay in Couscous. Well over forty, with nothing more than an adress to her ex-fiancée's cousin and a medical certificate guaranteeing her virginity (valid for ten years), the flees to Paris.

Here the cousin quickly tire of supporting Saïda, leaving her on the streets of slum suburb Belleville. But when she moves in with "princess" Ngaremba, the local letter writer for all Belleville's analphabets, and her matter-of-fact-daughter Loulouze and meets homeless Marcel, things slowly begin to change. First she gains a huge reputation for being the 50 year old virgin. And then, slowly, she begins to take her life, and her quest for love, into her own hands.

I don't quite know what to make of this book. It's pretty funny in a cynical sort of way, with a clever sense of disrespect. It's interesting to see an african writer looking at Africa in a comical light. But the narrative is too loose for me, and I don't really care about any of the characters. The book looks at them from without, it seems. And when Beyala then, at last, gets emotional and expects us to care for real, she's lost me at least. All in all, an alright read, but why it was getting selected novel of the year by the French Academy is beyond me. ( )