This Blinding Absence of Light - Softcover

Ben Jelloun, Tahar

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0141022825 ISBN 13: 9780141022826

Publisher: Penguin, 2005

Synopsis

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

About this title

Review:

'A life-affirming work of astonishing authority' -- Independent

'Magnificent' -- Guardian

'Unforgettable ... one of the great novels of incarceration and endurance' -- Independent

‘A gripping though unsettling novel . . . shocking for its lack of sentimentality’ -- Financial Times

‘A joy to read ... magnificent’ -- Guardian

‘A magisterial work ... one of the most beautiful, humbling and important books most of us are likely to read’ -- Irish Times

‘An unforgettable work of art ... this is one of the great novels of incarceration and endurance’ -- Independent

‘One of the most beautiful, humbling and important books most of us are likely ever to read’ -- Irish Times

‘Remarkable ... belongs in the annals of prison fiction along with Solzhenitsyn’s One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich’ -- Scotsman

About the Author:

Tahar Ben Jelloun was born in 1944 in Fez, Morocco, and emigrated to France in 1961. He is one of North Africa's foremost novelists. Tahar Ben Jelloun's novels include The Sacred Night which received the Prix Goncourt in 1987 and Corruption.

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0141022825
• ISBN 13: 9780141022826
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 208