After the resounding success of the novel “The Ideal Nanny,” the young French writer of Moroccan origin Leila Slimani, winner of the Goncourt Prize, took on a grandiose epic - a family saga in three volumes called “The Country of Others,” based on real events. “Christmas under the Cypresses” is the first book in this trilogy. The action takes place after World War II. Twenty-year-old Mathilde, a Frenchwoman from Alsace, fell madly in love with an officer of the colonial troops who participated in the liberation of France in 1944. Without a moment's hesitation, she married him and went to live with him in Morocco. She has to suppress the strong desire to return to her homeland that arises soon after her arrival: pregnant, penniless, she finds herself hostage to her subordinate position in a country where a woman’s life is limited by the strict rules of Islam. In addition, Morocco is unsettled; nationalist terrorist attacks follow one after another. However, Matilda is not one to give up. Despite disappointments, poverty and humiliation, she fights desperately for her family and her love. The book brought Leila Slimani the Grand Prix of Madame Figaro magazine for the best female character.