Translation of: La Daronne

Patience Portefeux, fifty-three, is an underpaid Franco-Arab judicial interpreter for the Ministry of Justice who specializes in telephone tapping. Widowed, wedged between university fees for her two grown-up daughters and nursing home costs for her aging mother, she's laboring to keep everyone's heads above water. Happening upon an especially revealing set of police wiretaps, Patience makes a life-altering decision that sees her intervening in-- and infiltrating-- the machinations of a massive drug deal. It's the first step in an entirely new career path: Patience becomes 'the Godmother'. -- adapted from back cover

First published in French by Editions Métailié, Paris, 2017

First published in English by Black Inc. Books, an imprint of Schwartz Publishing, 2019

"Inspiration for the upcoming motion picture Mama Weed" -- front cover

Issued also in electronic format