A Veil Over My Heart
from Abandonment to Forging My Own Path
by Safia Currie
What would you do if forsaken by your father?
Juliette is born to a French Christian mother and an Algerian Muslim father in the middle of the Paris riots in 1968. Her childhood is spent between the easy flow of her daily life in Algiers and her summers in the wine country region of Bordeaux. A sudden uprooting of her family to Belgium is followed by adultery and deception, leading to a divorce. Feeling utterly rejected, neither French enough nor Algerian enough, with her home torn from her, Juliette seeks her own way in the world. Her heart settles on moving to America.
Juliette quickly learns that forging a new life in America is not easy. Reality sets in when, in order to survive, she accepts a job that she believes is beneath her. She can either wallow in self-pity or pull herself together and start moving forward. Juliette has never been one to wallow. One thing is clear in her mind: She will not repeat the lives of hardship that both her mother and grandmother faced. Juliette is determined to learn from their lives and uncover their secrets, clinging to her own piece of freedom in the process.
A Veil Over My Heart reads like a page-turning novel, as Safia Currie brilliantly tells her story through the character of Juliette. It is a raw, poignant memoir about courage, determination, and survival in the face of being abandoned by one’s father and the importance of belonging.