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The Country of Others

The Country of Others

Author(s): Leila Slimani

Location(s): Morocco, Meknes

Genre(s): Fiction

Era(s): 1940s and 1950s

Location

Content

Alsace, 1944. Mathilde finds herself falling deeply in love with Amine Belhaj, a Moroccan soldier billeted in her town fighting for the French. After the Liberation, Mathilde leaves her country to follow her new husband to Morocco. But life here is unrecognisable to this brave and passionate young woman.

Suffocated by the heat of the Moroccan climate, by her loneliness on the farm, by the mistrust she inspires as a foreigner and by their lack of money, Mathilde grows restless.

As violence broods and Morocco’s own struggle for independence grows daily, Mathilde and Amine’s refusal to take sides sees them and their family at odds with their own desire for freedom.

How can Mathilde – a woman whose life is dominated by the decisions of men – hold her family together in a world that is being torn apart?

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Book Reviews

Lead Review

Author: Tina Hartas

Having read both Adèle and Lullaby, two previous novels by this author, I am struck by how versatile her storytelling is. Here she turns her hand to Post WW2 Morocco. It is the 1950s...

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