The reviewer for '' The Guardian '' , Robin Yassin-Kassab , noted that the novel is full of references to other works of fiction , including James Ellroy 's '' White Jazz '' . Yassin-Kassab criticized the " somewhat clumsy " dialogue and some " too obviously functional " characters , but praised the settings and the portrayal of French second-generation immigrants from Northern Africa , and Miské 's scope : " Everyone ’s been damaged by their heritage ; everyone ’s vulnerable to inner darkness and the explanatory narcotic of grand narrative " . The author himself noted how similar his settings are to those of the perpetrators of the Charlie Hebdo shooting ; he wrote the book between 2005 and 2010 , and set it in Paris 's 19th arrondissement , where much of the lives of the two killers took place : When I heard about the attack on Charlie Hebdo , I was deeply disturbed like most people .... Then I heard how the killers crashed their car at Place du Colonel Fabien and that they had hijacked another car and driven down the Rue Petit -- all places which appear in '' Arab Jazz '' -- I thought what is happening ? Why have these people invaded my book ? '' Arab Jazz '' won the Grand Prix de Littérature Policière in 2015 , an award for police and crime fiction in French , and the Prix du Goéland Masqué
Charlie Hebdo shooting
Charlie Hebdo shooting
Karim Miské