North African Fiction Night

As usual pick a book, poem, short story, etc related to our theme (North Africa) and come along and tell us all about it. The following list of suggestions, as always, is no prescriptive – if you find something better, read that instead!

### 🇲🇦 Morocco

• The Sand Child (1985) – Tahar Ben Jelloun
• Language: French (trans. Alan Sheridan)
• A poetic, subversive novel about gender, identity, and authoritarianism. It tells the story of a girl raised as a boy in a patriarchal society. Followed by the sequel The Sacred Night, which won the Prix Goncourt.
• Leaving Tangier (2006) – Tahar Ben Jelloun
• A modern, lyrical novel about migration, disillusionment, and the tension between Morocco and Europe.
• For Bread Alone (1973) – Mohammed Choukri
• Language: Arabic (translated from Moroccan Darija by Paul Bowles)
• A raw, semi-autobiographical coming-of-age story set in Tangier, depicting poverty, hunger, sexuality, and survival. Controversial when first published; now a modern classic.
• The Happy Marriage (2016) – Tahar Ben Jelloun
• A psychological portrait of marriage, power, and male privilege told through alternating perspectives.

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### 🇩🇿 Algeria

• Nedjma (1956) – Kateb Yacine
• Language: French
• A landmark modernist novel often compared to Faulkner and Joyce, blending myth, history, and revolutionary fervor. Considered foundational in Algerian Francophone literature.
• The Meursault Investigation (2013) – Kamel Daoud
• Language: Arabic/French (trans. John Cullen)
• A brilliant postcolonial response to Camus’s The Stranger, narrated by the brother of the unnamed Arab murdered by Meursault. Philosophical and politically daring.
• The German Mujahid (2008) – Boualem Sansal
• Language: French (trans. Frank Wynne)
• Explores memory, Nazism, and Islamist radicalism through the story of two brothers in France and Algeria.
• The Last Summer of Reason (1997) – Tahar Djaout
• A visionary, haunting novel set in an Islamist dystopia where books are banned. Djaout was assassinated by extremists shortly after.

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### 🇹🇳 Tunisia

• The Scents of Marie-Claire (1997) – Habib Selmi
• Language: Arabic (trans. Fadwa al Qasem)
• A quiet, incisive novel exploring a cross-cultural relationship between a Tunisian man and a French woman, revealing both personal and political tensions.
• The Italian (2011) – Shukri Mabkhout
• Language: Arabic (trans. Miled Faiza and Karen McNeil)
• Winner of the International Prize for Arabic Fiction. A novel of love, politics, and betrayal during the tumultuous post–Bourguiba era in Tunisia.

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### 🇱🇾 Libya

• In the Country of Men (2006) – Hisham Matar
• Language: English
• Booker-shortlisted. Told through the eyes of a boy during Gaddafi’s regime, it’s lyrical and devastating, exploring repression, family, and memory.
• Anatomy of a Disappearance (2011) – Hisham Matar
• A coming-of-age novel centered on exile and the mysterious disappearance of the narrator’s father, echoing Matar’s own biography.
• Maps of the Soul (1973; Eng. trans. later) – Ahmad Ibrahim al-Faqih
• An ambitious Libyan epic spanning multiple volumes; the English translation is condensed but still richly layered.

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### 🇪🇬 Egypt (if you're open to including the broader North African/Mashreq edge)

While Egypt is technically North African and has its own major literary tradition, just a few highlights:

• The Cairo Trilogy (1956–1957) – Naguib Mahfouz (Nobel Prize 1988)
• A sweeping family saga across three generations. Classic modern Arabic literature.
• Woman at Point Zero (1975) – Nawal El Saadawi
• Based on a true story. A feminist, existential novel about a woman condemned to death. Lean and searing.
• Zaat (1992) – Sonallah Ibrahim
• A biting, satirical novel about modern Egyptian society, bureaucracy, and media manipulation.