OLGA RUSSO WATERS

 

BIO

 Kevin-Alex was born on December 18, 1994 in Kara, Togo. After obtaining his literary baccalaureate, he enrolled in 2012 at the University of Kara, later studying law there. Passionate from an early age about literature, Rendez-vous avec le Destin is his second novel. Kevin-Alex was born on December 18, 1994 in Kara, Togo. After obtaining his literary baccalaureate, he enrolled in 2012 at the University of Kara, later studying law there. Passionate from an early age about literature, Rendez-vous avec le Destin is his second novel. Philipe ou le parcours d'un fils is his first novel, was published in 2018.

Après l'obtention de son baccalaureat litteraire, il s'inscrit en 2012 a l'université de Kara. Depuis, il y poursuit des etudes en droit. Passionné depuis toujours par la littérature, Rendez-vous avec le Destin est son deuxième roman. Philipe ou le parcours d'un fils est son premier roman, publié en 2018.

BOOKS

 

 

THE "FRANCOAMERITALIAN" WAY...Discover Olga's story as a double migrant from her own eyes as a little girl. It portrays the uprooting and anchoring of one family's journey that is both unique and universal.
At the age of two, Olga's family leaves her native village in Southern Italy in the late 1950s. Their villages, similar to other impoverished places around the world, has become a reservoir of unskilled labor that fill the demands of countries thriving from the twentieth century global industrialization. In France, work is plentiful to extract coal, the country's main source of energy at the time. There, Olga's father takes on the hard and dangerous work in the pit of the earth alongside many other Italian, Polish and Moroccan migrants. Living in a coal mining community at the foot of her "black mountain," the little girl finds happiness and joy.
In 1966, life brings forth another uprooting to the USA. Now ten years old, leaving the warm familiarity of her "black mountain" community is very painful. After a difficult period of adjustment for the entire family, the young girl struggles to find her path in a life that is better - yet harder and complicated by major social and cultural transformations of the sixties. At the root of her emotional distress is...how to build her future without thwarting their family cohesion so preciously amassed...how to frame a path forward that embraces the changing times while integrating her own "francoameritalian" culture into another mix of cultures.
Decades later, Olga remains viscerally attached to her memories at the foot of her "black mountain" of hope because "we never forget the child we have been." The rich descriptions of her childhood journey reveal realities that will resonate with migrants to this day.

 

Ils sont jeunes, pleins d’avenir et vivent dans des conditions modestes. Lui est étudiant et vit seul avec sa mère. Elle est élève et doit faire face au mépris de ses camarades. Philippe et Mazalo, deux jeunes qui ne se connaissent pas, vivant à des centaines de kilomètres l’un de l’autre, doivent faire face à une réalité qui au fil du temps va les rapprocher.