Leaving Tangier
Jelloun, Tahar Ben, 1944-200902UU
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Young Moroccans gather regularly in a seafront cafe to gaze at the lights on the Spanish coast glimmering in the distance. A young man called Azel 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. 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. A young man called Azel 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.
Main title:
Leaving Tangier / Tahar Ben Jelloun; Translated by Linda Coverdale.
Imprint:
London : Arcadia Books, 2009.
Collation:
372 p. ; 22x14 cm.
Notes:
Paperback. B-format paperback.
Biography/History:
Tahar Ben Jelloun was born in Fez, Morocco in 1944. He is the winner of the Prix Maghreb, Prix Goncourt (the first north African to win France's top literary prize), the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award and was also short-listed for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize. His fans have numbered Samuel Beckett and Roland Barthes. He lives in Paris and Tangier.
ISBN:
9781906413330 (pbk)1906413339 (pbk)
Dewey class:
AF
Language:
EnglishFrench
BRN:
548049
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