Lassana Bathily was an undocumented migrant from Mali until he became an unlikely hero by saving shoppers' lives during the jihadist attack on a Jewish supermarket in Paris a year ago. The 25-year-old became the one positive story to emerge from the three days of violence in January, when jihadist attacks on the Charlie Hebdo satirical weekly, police and the Jewish Hyper Cacher supermarket in the east of the capital killed a total of 17 people.
Bathily, a shelf-stacker in the supermarket, helped save shoppers from gunman Amedy Coulibaly on that fateful day, January 9, 2015. The narrative of a Muslim saving Jews from a jihadist made him a positive symbol of France's diversity. But as he writes in his book "I'm Not a Hero" to be published tomorrow, heroism has been an uncomfortable mantle for Bathily.
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