From and to Paris: Experiences of Migration in The Book of Salt

Abstract

Focusing on the different experiences of migration presented in Monique Truong’s The Book of Salt, set in Paris in the 1930s but involving characters coming from Indochina and the United States, the essay tries to identify motives and opportunities, and the consequent way the various characters consider the capital city. This analysis reveals that the reasons for leaving and the way migrants face their dislocation is often related to the idea of ‘feeling at home’, which connects memory, present experience and choices for the future.

DOI: 10.17456/SIMPLE-101

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