It is the final year of the twentieth century and King Sidi is dying . . . Mohamed has been the king's fool for thirty-five year, his closest counsel, privy to his deepest secrets and most intimate thoughts. It is an honoured position for which many would pay a hefty price. Something Mohamed understands only too well, for this closeness has indeed come at a terrible cost. The threat of imprisonment looms, even as the once-mighty monarch draws his final breaths. In the last days of this all-powerful tyrant of the twentieth century, his faithful court fool takes stock of the decades he spent in the Moroccan king's service. For the many years of corrosive love and loyalty have left certain indelible wounds . . . Translated from the French by Ben Faccini

The King's Fool

Literature & Fiction

Binebine, Mahi

Literary

Quercus Publishing

Sidi is dying.In the last days of this all-powerful tyrant, his faithful court fool takes stock of the decades he has spent in the king's service. For the many years have left certain indelible wounds.During his service, the fool has been the king's closest counsel, his most trusted companion and adviser, privy to the king's deepest secrets and most intimate thoughts. It is an honoured position for which many other courtiers would pay a hefty price. Something the fool understands only too well, for this closeness has indeed come at a terrible cost.What price the confidence of a great king Is it stories, jokes, witty repartee Or does the debt fall closer to home Perhaps it must be paid far from the magnificent palaces, feasting and festivities of the royal court. Perhaps it must be paid in the death jails of a formidable prison fortress far out in the desert; a place so feared that few dare to speak its name . . .

MacLehose Press

Welcome to Paradise (Eland Classics)

History

Africa

Eland Publishing

A fictional take on the problems faced by asylum seekers follows the adventures of a boatload of North African people as they attempt to cross the Mediterranean in search of a better life in Europe.

Welcome to Paradise

Norman, Lulu

United States

Granta Books

The Strait of Gibraltar, the 10-mile-wide waterway separating Europe and Africa, is where, at night, immigrant traffickers pit themselves against two sets of coast guards. The passengers include people such as Kacem, an escapee from the civil war in Algeria; Nuara, with her unborn child, whose husband hasn't been in touch for months since moving to France; and Aziz, the young narrator, and his cousin Reda, severed, in different ways, from their families in southernmost Morocco. They all share a longing to escape, a readiness to risk everything, and the only person who can help them is Morad, an ex-con from French prison who holds court at a back table in Cafe France in Tangier. Tense, dramatic, and bleakly compassionate, Welcome to Paradise is a fictional glimpse into the difficulties facing asylum seekers and a striking portrait of human desperation.

Granta UK

Mahi Binebine's courageous novel delves into a world that most readers know only from stories on the nightly news, delivering a compassionate glimpse into the difficulties facing asylum seekers and a striking portrait of human desperation. Mahi Binebine’s courageous novel takes place in Morocco, where seven would-be immigrants gather one night near the Strait of Gibraltar to wait for a signal from a trafficker that it is time to cross. While they wait, their stories unfold: Kacem Judi is an escapee from the civil war in Algeria; Nuara, with her newborn child, hopes to find her husband, who hasn’t been in touch for months since moving to France; and Aziz, the young narrator, and his cousin Reda are severed, in different ways, from their families in southern Morocco. They all share a longing to escape and a readiness to risk everything. Welcome to Paradise delves into a world that most readers know only from stories on the nightly news, delivering a compassionate and striking portrait of human desperation.

Tin House Books

Inspired by real events, Horses of God follows four childhood friends growing up in a slum outside of Casablanca as they make the life-changing decisions that will lead them to become Islamist martyrs. On May 16, 2003, fourteen suicide bombers launched a series of attacks throughout Casablanca. It was the deadliest attack in Morocco’s history. The bombers came from the shantytowns of Sidi Moumen, a poor suburb on the edge of a dump whose impoverished residents rarely if ever set foot in the cosmopolitan city at their doorstep. Mahi Binebine’s novel Horses of God follows four childhood friends growing up in Sidi Moumen as they make the life-changing decisions that will lead them to become Islamist martyrs. The seeds of fundamentalist martyrdom are sown in the dirt-poor lives of Yachine, Nabil, Fuad, and Ali, all raised in Sidi Moumen. The boys’ soccer team, The Stars of Sidi Moumen, is their main escape from the poverty, violence, and absence of hope that pervade their lives. When Yachine’s older brother Hamid falls under the spell of fundamentalist leader Abu Zoubeir, the attraction of a religion that offers discipline, purpose, and guidance to young men who have none of these things becomes too seductive to ignore. Narrated by Yachine from the afterlife, Horses of God portrays the sweet innocence of childhood and friendship as well as the challenges facing those with few opportunities for a better life. Binebine navigates the controversial situation with compassion, creating empathy for the boys, who believe they have no choice but to follow the path offered them.

Horses of God: A Novel

Les Étoiles de Sidi Moumen

Contemporary

Flammarion

Le Seigneur vous le rendra (Littérature Française, 33) (French Edition)

Genre Fiction

FAYARD

L'ombre du poète: Roman (French Edition)

Stock

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