Published on June 27, 2024 at 10:13 p.m. / Modified on June 28, 2024 at 6:07 a.m.
In the small Flemish village where they grew up, the friendship between Tristan Ibrahimi and Jimmy Sas is a miraculous incongruity. The two heroes of The Honorable Collector were placed side by side at school. Tristan arrived from Kosovo after months of wandering, fleeing the war on foot with his family. Jimmy is an only child, a local, harassed by his friends and left to his own devices since his parents’ divorce.
Tristan’s garden is crumbling under the furniture and toys that the supportive villagers leave every day on the steps of these pampered refugees. At Jimmy’s, the facade of the house has been sprayed with insults since his father, a crooked insurer, ran away with his clients’ savings. His only company is his mother’s lethargy and his precious collection of flippos, illustrated slices found at the bottom of packets of crisps. Tristan sleeps with his many brothers and sisters, on mattresses placed on the floor, in a room that looks like a “wish granted, a landing strip lined with blankets and pillows on which one could chain the somersaults and cartwheels.
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