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This Blinding Absence of Light

This Blinding Absence of Light
  • Author(s): Tahar Ben Jelloun
  • Location(s): Morocco
  • Genre(s): Nonfiction
  • Era(s): 1971

In this extraordinary non-fiction novel, based on a true story, Tahar Ben Jelloun traces the experiences of Salim who, in 1971, took part in a failed coup attempt to oust King Hassan II of Morocco. With sixty others Salim...

The Voices of Marrakesh: A Record of a Visit

The Voices of Marrakesh: A Record of a Visit
  • Author(s): Elias Canetti
  • Location(s): Marrakech
  • Genre(s): Nonfiction
  • Era(s): 1940s

Nobel Prize-winning author Canetti spent only a few weeks in Marrakesh, but it was a visit that would remain with him for the rest of his life. In The Voices of Marrakesh, he captures the essence of that place:...

For Bread Alone

For Bread Alone
  • Author(s): Mohamed Choukri
  • Location(s): Tangier
  • Genre(s): Autobiography/Memoirs
  • Era(s): 1952

Driven by famine from their home in the Rif, Mohamed’s family walks to Tangiers in search of a better life. But things are no better there. Eight of Mohamed’s siblings die of malnutrition and neglect, and one is killed...

The Sand Child

The Sand Child
  • Author(s): Tahar Ben Jelloun
  • Location(s): Morocco
  • Genre(s): Historical
  • Era(s): 1950s

In this lyrical, hallucinatory novel set in Morocco, Tahar Ben Jelloun offers an imaginative and radical critique of contemporary Arab social customs and Islamic law. The Sand Child tells the story of a Moroccan father’s effort to thwart the...

The Spider’s House

The Spider’s House
  • Author(s): Paul Bowles
  • Location(s): Fez
  • Genre(s): Historical
  • Era(s): 1954

Fez, 1954, and American ex-pat Stenham reluctantly accepts a guide for his night-time walk home through the streets of the Medina. A nationalist uprising is transforming the country, much to the annoyance of Stenham, who enjoys the trappings of...

Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits

Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits
  • Author(s): Laila Lalami
  • Location(s): Morocco, Casablanca
  • Genre(s): Fiction
  • Era(s): Contemporary

There’s Murad, a gentle, unemployed man who’s been reduced to hustling tourists around Tangier; Halima, who’s fleeing her drunken husband and the slums of Casablanca; Aziz, who must leave behind his devoted wife in hope of securing work in...

A Beautiful White Cat Walks with Me

A Beautiful White Cat Walks with Me
  • Author(s): Youssef Fadel
  • Location(s): Marrakech
  • Genre(s): Fiction
  • Era(s): 1980s

Hassan makes a living in his native Marrakesh as a comic writer and performer, through his satirical sketches critical of Morocco’s rulers. Yet when he is suddenly conscripted into a losing war in the Sahara, and drafted to a...

A Shimmering Red Fish Swims with Me

A Shimmering Red Fish Swims with Me
  • Author(s): Youssef Fadel
  • Location(s): Casablanca
  • Genre(s): Fiction
  • Era(s): 1980s

In 1980s Casablanca, Farah arrives from her small town life with big dreams: she wants to sing. She meets Outhman, but he longs to leave the city, to seek his fortune elsewhere. They fall in love, but trouble brews...

Whitefly

Whitefly
  • Author(s): Abdelilah Hamdouchi
  • Location(s): Tangier
  • Genre(s): Crime, Fiction
  • Era(s): early 21st century

I want that gun, even if it’s in a fish’s stomach. When a fourth corpse in three days washes up in Tangier with a bullet in the chest, Detective Laafrit knows this isn t just another illegal immigrant who...

The Butcher of Casablanca

The Butcher of Casablanca
  • Author(s): Abdelilah Hamdouchi
  • Location(s): Casablanca
  • Genre(s): Crime, Fiction
  • Era(s): Contemporary

A series of gruesome murders shakes the city of Casablanca. The killer knows exactly how the police will pursue him and how to obliterate evidence that could lead them to identify his victims. Fear spreads throughout the city as...

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