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.
***
### 🇩🇿 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.
***
### 🇹🇳 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.
***
### 🇱🇾 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.
***
### 🇪🇬 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.
