Alger – Marseille. Journal d’une rapatriée

This diary is the final link in a family saga, a chain of Pieds-Noirs established in French Algeria from the conquest to the country's independence. It is based on daily notes. The author's sole concern is objectivity. However, if her emotions and indignation sometimes prevail, they are at least rooted in real, lived facts.

From 1954 to 1962, Suzon Pulicani-Varnier chronicles the events in Algeria: the first indigenous uprising and massacres of Europeans on November 1, 1954; Camus's generous lecture in Algiers on January 21, 1956; the moving fraternization of May 16, 1958, and the famous "Je vous ai compris" (I have understood you) delivered by de Gaulle at the Forum of Algiers; the slow degradation of the situation; the week of the barricades in January 1960; the generals' revolt in April 1961; the formation of the OAS; the Evian Accords of March 19, 1962; and the bloody shooting on Rue d'Isly on March 26, 1962. Finally, the indescribable panic of June 1962, which forced thousands of Pieds-Noirs onto ships and planes, delivering a crowd of confused and nearly destitute "repatriates" to the mainland.

In the second part of her diary, the author, initially wishing to live in independent Algeria, decides to move to France where she is offered a position she believes to be stable, but which proves to be an illusion. Her long job search reaches a happy conclusion with a position as secretary to Professor Jean Sutter, head of the University Psychiatric Clinic at La Timone in Marseille.