“Four Days Without My Mother” by Ramsès Kefi: young author and rare bird

Review In this first novel full of verve and sensitivity, the journalist Ramsès Kefi composes an intimate and social fresco full of promise ★★★☆☆

By Anne Crignon

Published on August 22, 2025 at 11:00 a.m.

Ramses Kefi. PHILIPPE MATSAS/EDITIONS PHILIPPE REY

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Overnight, a woman left her family. It's Amani, 67, years of housekeeping behind her, nicknamed "Emporio Amani" for her delicate perfume. Amani, married for half a century to a man who can't believe such an affront and fears what people will say in the city of the Cave—gossip is tracked every day on a bench, right in the middle, named "TF1." In the son's head, it's more interesting. A little Jiminy Cricket is getting agitated and reproaching him for not having been nice to his mother. There is no love, the maxim goes, there are only proofs of love. This year, father and son forgot Amani's birthday. And, above all, they remained indifferent when the cat didn't come home and she searched for it for days in vain. Ramsès Kefi, who is a journalist (Rue89, “Libération”, the magazine “XXI”), makes guilt the subject of his book.

Suspense. One morning, everything seems as usual. A mother scribbles a shopping list—eggs, yogurt, dish soap—as if nothing had happened. An hour later, she's gone. From then on, the reader wants to understand. Maintaining suspense for 200 pages is one possible definition of talent.

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