Product details
- ISBN 9780141022826
- Weight: 153g
- Dimensions: 130 x 198mm
- Publication Date: 01 Sep 2005
- Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Paperback
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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 was incarcerated in a secret prison complex in the Moroccan desert: he was to remain there for nearly twenty years.
In starkly eloquent, beautiful prose, Ben Jelloun relates the prisoners' experiences as they struggle to survive. The son of a witty, feckless courtier who disowns him, Salim tells stories to keep sane - from the suras of his beloved Koran to the plot of A Streetcar Named Desire. Even in the darkest, most terrible conditions, sympathy, insight, the human quest for meaning and understanding, never desert Salim. The resulting novel is a wrenching yet exquisite celebration of the human spirit and its determination to survive.
'A masterpiece' Judges of the IMPAC award
'a sad and splendid book' New York Times Book Review
