Life ahead

Momo is ten years old, or thereabouts, and has his whole life ahead of him, unfortunately. He lives in Madame Rosa's apartment, on the sixth floor of a building without a lift, in Belleville, Paris. Madame Rosa is a seventy-year-old, overweight, Jewish former prostitute, who runs a sort of boarding house in her apartment for children whose prostitute mothers are away at work.

Madame Lola, a transvestite and former boxing champion in Senegal, also lives in the same building. And Mr. Hamil, a rug merchant, who is always smiling, even though he says no one can live without love. And Mr. Waloumba, who came from Cameroon to Paris to sweep the streets, but also has a fire-breathing license and spews fire from his mouth.

When he learned that Madame Rosa kept him in her home because she received a monthly remittance and not because she loved him, Momo was saddened. But he was wrong, Madame Rosa loved him very much.