They tread thick layers of dead leaves, pass piles of junk, car scrapyards, venture into cities, walk for hours. She, Anne Weber, is tall and German, his name is Hocine, he is Franco-Algerian and formerly his name was Thierry, by the will of his father, a small construction entrepreneur driven by a compelling desire to forget his North African roots. “You should never travel to a country without its inhabitants,” repeats Hocine. And this country which will occupy an entire book is Seine-Saint-Denis where Thierry-Hocine was born and raised. It is therefore he who serves as a guide to the author, a resident of the 19th arrondissement with a view of the Sacré-Cœur and who, like many intramural Parisians, has never really set foot on the other side of the ring road. .
Nine-three («93» having already been taken by Victor Hugo) is the story of six months of walks in Seine-Saint-Denis. What drives it is the friendly relationship between the two protagonists. Both use self-deprecation, playing with this strange assemblage: he, the “master”, and she, the intellectual who has become “illiterate” in the suburbs. She is always asking why this or that thing is happening, the meaning of which escapes her. Example: What are these men doing waiting? Well these are “car repairers” on the fly. What is this polyphony which
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