Transitions: From Enemies to Soulmates During the Franco-Algerian War (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9798223452522)

For Sabrina Hamdi, a modern, young, and attractive member of Algeria's classe moyenne supérieure, life is good, until the uprising knocks on her door. Literally. French security forces whisk her away and toss her into a notorious prison. With a now white-hot hatred of all things French, she devotes herself to ridding Algeria of colonial power.

Luc Jaundreau, a battle-hardened French Foreign Legion veteran of the brutal Indochina war, hopes for a new posting to Polynesia. Instead, he finds himself shipped to the "sandbox," Algeria, to help quell yet another uprising.

Their first run-in happens when Luc's night patrol innocently rescues a stranded Sabrina (with fake identification) after she's shot three French detectives. A second encounter happens during a nighttime firefight in Algiers' casbah. Sabrina gets the better of Luc. Recognition comes a moment before she almost pulls the trigger of her rifle. Instead, she curses at him and flees down a laneway.

A third encounter brings them together at a New Year's Eve soiree in the city's entertainment district. Shocked at seeing each other in this context, they manage an awkward, guarded exchange before separating. Yet a different, non-lethal spark ignites itself in both. They will meet again under more favorable conditions.

Transitions offers a sweeping canvas of mid-50s Algeria in turmoil. You will be transported from a sophisticated capital to an ambush in the Atlas Mountains, from the "café wars" in Paris to dangerous night patrols on the edge of the Sahara Desert. Transitions is in part a war story but more a triumph of the human spirit. Fate will have its say as two armed and dangerous enemies move from being wary to being worthy of each other.