Leaving Tangier - Softcover

Tahar Ben Jelloun

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1906413339 ISBN 13: 9781906413330

Publisher: ARCADIA BOOKS, 2009

Synopsis

Young Moroccans gather regularly in a seafront cafe to gaze at the lights on the Spanish coast glimmering in the distance. Azel, the protagonist, is intent on leaving in one way or another. On the brink of despair he meets Miguel, a wealthy Spanish gallery owner who promises to take him to Barcelona if Azel will become his lover.

About this title

Review:

'A brave, unflinching look at the issues underlying economic migration from North Africa-and the hard choices people make between roots and wings.' * The Economist * 'Of the thirty books Tahar Ben Jelloun has written, this is undoubtedly one of the most courageous.' * Le Monde des Livres * 'Tahar Ben Jelloun lifts the veil on an astounding world of a thousand and one nights.' * Le Point * 'Just as John Updike reminded Americans of the guilt and vertigo they sort out between the sheets, Ben Jelloun has chronicled the shame and secrecy surrounding sex in a Morocco of creeping fundamentalism and diminishing opportunity. The explicitness of the sex in his work is powerful and often beautifully erotic; it's . . . where sex amplifies the degradations of postcolonial economic reality that Leaving Tangier lands like a hammer blow. . . . Leaving Tangier would read like a blunt political instrument . . . were Ben Jelloun not such a wonderfully specific writer. Many scenes of agonizing depravity convey the desperation of poverty. . . . From such bracing particulars, Ben Jelloun fashions political fiction of great urgency.' -- John Freeman * Bookforum * 'Artful and compassionate, "Leaving Tangier" evokes a milieu of self-exile and great expectations.' * The Washington Post * 'Ben Jelloun is arguably Morocco's greatest living author, whose impressive body of work combines intellect and imagination in magical fusion. . . . "Leaving Tangier" is a wholly original feat of form and imagination. . . . There is unexpected humour jostling alongside the horror, in magical-realist passages illuminating the clash of traditional and modern.' * The Guardian * '[A] penetrating tale.' * The New York Times Book Review *

Synopsis:

Leaving Tangier, in the early 1990s: Young Moroccans gather regularly in a seafront cafe to gaze at the lights on the Spanish coast glimmering in the distance. Facing a future with few prospects in a country they feel has failed them, their disillusionment is matched only by their desire to reach this paradise - so close and yet so far - not least because of the treacherous waters separating the two countries and the frightening stories they hear of the fates of would-be illegal emigrants. Azel, the protagonist, is intent upon leaving one way or another.At the brink of despair he meets Miguel, a wealthy Spanish gallery-owner, who promises to take him to Barcelona if Azel will become his lover. Seeing no other solution, and although he has a girlfriend to whom he is promised, Azel agrees to Miguel's proposition and thus begins a different kind of hell for the young Moroccan - shame and self-disgust at his own helplessness gradually overcome him and he finds himself once more in a hopeless situation. Azel and others like him, including his sister, begin to wonder if the reality of life in Europe will live up to their dreams.

About this edition

• Publisher: ARCADIA BOOKS
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 1906413339
• ISBN 13: 9781906413330
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 372