The Last Friend - Softcover

Ben Jelloun, Tahar

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0143038486 ISBN 13: 9780143038481

Publisher: Penguin Books, 2007

Synopsis

Renowned for his compeling, humane portraits of everyday Arab lives, Tahar Ben Jelloun has affirmed his place in the literary world by winning such awards as the Prix Goncourt and Prix Maghreb. In The Last Friend, Ben Jelloun presents a spellbinding coming-of-age story and a dazzling portrait of Morocco in an era of repression and disillusionment. In Tangiers in the late 1950s, two teenagers, Mamed and Ali, strike up an intense friendship that will last a lifetime. But lurking just beneath the surface is a deep, unspoken jealousy in danger of destroying them both.

About this title

Review:

What Ben Jelloun does brilliantly is write with a kind of refreshing candor that demystifies the Arab world. (Paris Voice)

A profound and moving novel. (Le Monde)

Daring and introspective, The Last Friend should bring [Ben Jelloun] the wide readership that has eluded him in this country. (The Nation)

Absorbing, like a meditation, a trance. (The Daily Telegraph, London)

...a seductive, lyrical novel exploring the seeming betrayal of a lifelong friendship (French Book News)

Synopsis:

The Last Friend, the new novel from internationally acclaimed author Tahar Ben Jelloun, is a Rashamon-like tale of friendship and betrayal set in 20th century Tangier. Written in Ben Jelloun's inimitable and powerfully direct style, the novel explores the twists and turns of an intense thirty-year friendship between two young men struggling to find their identities and sexual fulfillment in Morocco in the late 1950s, a complex and contradictory society both modern and archaic. From their carefree university days through their brutal imprisonment and ultimate release, the two rely on each other for physical and psychological survival, forging bonds not easily broken. Each narrator tells his version of the story, painting a vivid portrait of life lived within and against the moral strictures of North Africa. Set against a backdrop of the repression and disillusionment The Last Friend is a tale of loss of innocence and a nation's coming of age.

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin Books
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0143038486
• ISBN 13: 9780143038481
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 192