Entries Tagged as ‘Moroccan’

June 12, 2009

Leaving Tangier by Tahar Ben Jelloun, translated by Linda Coverdale

Leaving TangierIn spite of his prestigious college degree which should have guaranteed him a bright future, Azel is unable to find meaningful work in his native Tangier, a city in northern Morocco. Mired in self-absorbed disappointment, he spends his days and nights lost in women, wine, and song, living off the hard earnings of his older sister, Kenza. When he meets Miguel, a wealthy Spaniard, Azel recognizes a chance for escape. Although he adamantly denies being a homosexual, Azel nevertheless allows Miguel to buy him a luxurious new life in Barcelona.

Azel’s sister Kenza soon follows as Miguel’s legal “wife,” but insists on remaining independent. Unable to come to terms with his exploited sexuality – not to mention his dissolute existence – Azel falls victim to his own sense of trapped failure.

Already a bestseller in France where it was first published (Jelloun is a Moroccan transplant who immigrated to France in 1961), Leaving adroitly explores the complicated issues of immigration, contrasting two cultures separated merely by the few miles of the Straits of Gibraltar, and yet so vastly distanced by socio-economic differences.

Readers: Adult

Published: 2009 (United States)

April 19, 2001

Stolen Lives: Twenty Years in a Desert Jail by Malika Oufkir and Michele Fitoussi

stolen-livesNever mind its faults. Stolen Lives: Twenty Years in a Desert Jail, by Malika Oufkir and Michele Fitoussi is going to sell well. It’s already a runaway bestseller in France, where it debuted in 1999 as La Prisoniere.

As far as memoirs go, this one is sensational – literally. It’s got fairy-tale royal life. It’s got a political coup. It’s got deprivation and suffering during a decades-long prison sentence. It’s even got film written all over it (Talk Miramax is the publisher, after all).

The book opens with a preface by co-author Fitoussi who waxes about seeing this mysterious, beautiful woman from afar at a Paris party. They become friends, Oufkir needs to get her story out to “exorcise the painful past” so Fitoussi drops everything to transcribe it for her. Thus, Stolen Lives begins.

Malika Oufkir, whose first name means “queen” in Arabic, was presciently (and later, ironically) named. As the first child of a powerful and affluent family, she was indeed the “little queen” in the eyes of her father, General Muhammad Oufkir. …[click here for more]

Review: Christian Science Monitor, April 19, 2001

Readers: Adult

Published: 2001 (United States)

March 4, 1997

Chingis Khan by Demi

Chingis KhanA biography, based on both historical accounts and legends, of the great Mongol warrior and leader, Chingis Khan (aka Ghenghis Khan), who at the height of his career, controlled the largest empire ever created during the lifetime of one man.

The prolific Demi is the author/illustrator of over a hundred books for children. Her full name, for the curious, is Charlotte Demi Hunt Huang. She comes for a long line of fine artists … and she’s Chinese American by marriage to Tze-si Jesse Huang.

Review: “Asian American Titles,” What Do I Read Next? Multicultural Literature, Gale Research, 1997

Readers: Children

Published: 1991